Studies in Wistar rats identified increases in the optical density of CART peptide both in nucleus accumbens neurons and their processes in the substantia nigra on the background of a 28% reduction in the number of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (in a model of lactacystin-induced proteasome dysfunction). In in vitro experiments, incubation of nigroaccumbal sections in medium containing α-methylparatyrosine – a blocker of dopamine synthesis – for 4 h decreased the optical density of tyrosine hydroxylase, the rate-limiting step in dopamine synthesis in substantia nigra neurons. On the background of blockade of dopamine synthesis, there were increases in the optical density of CART peptide in nucleus accumbens neurons and in their processes in the substantia nigra. Data on the activation of CARTergic neurons in striatonigral projections provide evidence that CART peptide is involved in the brain’s compensatory mechanisms in dopamine insufficiency and of its role as a modulator of the functional activity of brain dopaminergic neurons.
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Translated from Rossiiskii Fiziologicheskii Zhurnal imeni I. M. Sechenova, Vol. 98, No. 8, pp. 980–989, August, 2012.
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Romanova, I.V., Chesnokova, A.Y. & Mikhrina, A.L. An Immunohistochemical Study of Cart Peptide in the Striatonigral Projections in Dopamine Deficiency. Neurosci Behav Physi 44, 408–414 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-014-9926-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-014-9926-1