Figure 1: Intranigral infusion of acrolein induced neurodegeneration of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system of rat brain.

Acrolein (ARC, 15–150 nmoles) was locally infused in the substantia nigra (SN) and rats were sacrificed 7 days after intranigral infusion of acrolein. (A) Striatal dopamine content was measured using HPLC-ECD. Values are the mean ± S.E.M. (n = 5–6/group) *p < 0.05 in the striatum ipsilateral to acrolein-infused SN compared with that to the intact SN by one-way analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) and followed by the LSD test as a post-hoc analysis. (B) Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) in the SN was measured using Western blot. Each lane contained 3 μg proteins for all experiments. Graphs show statistic results from relative optical density of bands on the blots. Values are the mean ± S.E.M. (n = 3/group). *p < 0.05 in the acrolein-infused SN compared with the intact SN by one-way analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) and followed by the LSD test as a post-hoc analysis. (C) Dopamine transporter in the SN was measured using Western blot. Each lane contained 25 μg proteins for all experiments. Values are the mean ± S.E.M. (n = 7/group). *p < 0.05 in the acrolein-infused SN compared with the intact SN by t-test. (D) Representative confocal microscopic data showed TH-positive neurons in the SN of rat subjected to intranigral infusion of acrolein (150 nmoles). TH-positive cells in acrolein-infused SN were counted and expressed as % of that in the contralateral intact SN. Values are the mean ± S.E.M. (n = 5). *p < 0.05 in the acrolein-infused SN compared with the control SN by t-test. (E) A behavioral study of apomorphine-induced rotations in rats subjected to a unilateral infusion of acrolein (n = 6) or vehicle (n = 4) in the SN. Values are the mean ± S.E.M. *p < 0.05 in the contralateral rotations compared with the ipsilateral rotations in rats with acrolein-infused SN by Mann-Whitney Rank Sum Test. n.s.: not significant.