Elsevier

Neuroscience

Volume 9, Issue 4, August 1983, Pages 879-888
Neuroscience

Behavioral and neuronal reorganization after unilateral substantia nigra lesions: Evidence for increased interhemispheric nigrostriatal projections

https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-4522(83)90276-2Get rights and content

Abstract

This study was intended to investigate the possibility of a relationship between compensation of sensory-motor asymmetries induced by unilateral substantia nigra lesions and changes in inter-hemispheric nigrostriatal projections. Adult male rats were used in two experiments:

Experiment I. Animals received an injection of either 6-OH-dopamine or kainic acid into the substantia nigra. They were observed for intervals of 7, 21 or 90 days with respect to spontaneous turning, d-amphetamine-induced turning and other sensory-motor asymmetries. Interhemispheric nigrostriatal projections were examined by injecting horseradish peroxidase into the striatum homolateral to the nigral lesion. Labeled perikarya were counted in the contralateral substantia nigra. A significant increase in number of labeled neurons was observed 7 and 21 days, but not 90 days after the nigral lesion in comparison to control animals. Spontaneous lesion-induced turning behavior ceased within the first postoperative week. After 21 and 90 days it was still possible to elicit turning by injection of amphetamine.

Experiment II. An increase in number of interhemispheric nigro striatal projections one week after the nigral lesion was also found when Nuclear Yellow was used as a tracer substance. Animals received a unilateral injection of Fast Blue into the caudate nucleus, followed by an injection of Nuclear Yellow at the identical locus one week later. An increase in number of Nuclear Yellow-labeled neurons was registered only if the injection of Fast Blue was followed by a 6-hydroxydopamine lesion in the homolateral substantia nigra within 24 h. Interhemispheric nigro striatal projections were of monoaminergic as well as of non-monoaminergic origin, as revealed by histofluorescent tracing for monoaminergic neurons.

These results may reflect sprouting of interhemispheric fiber projections in response to, or as correlates of, behavioral compensation of the lesion-induced behavioral asymmetries.

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