| Popis: |
Mechanisms that determine the survival of midbrain dopaminergic (mDA) neurons in the adult central nervous system (CNS) are not fully understood. Netrins are a family of secreted proteins that are essential for normal neural development. In the mature CNS, mDA neurons express particularly high levels of netrin-1 and its receptor Deleted in Colorectal Cancer (DCC). Recent findings indicate that overexpressing netrin-1 protects mDA neurons in animal models of Parkinson's disease (PD), with a proposed pro-apoptotic dependence function for DCC that triggers cell death in the absence of a ligand. Here, we sought to determine if DCC expression influences mDA neuron survival in young adult and ageing mice. To circumvent the perinatal lethality of DCC null mice, we selectively deleted DCC from mDA neurons utilizing DAT |
Plný text