Journal article
The vulnerable ventral tegmental area in Parkinson’s disease
Basal ganglia, Vol.5(2-3), pp.51-55
08/2015
DOI: 10.1016/j.baga.2015.06.001
PMCID: PMC4523275
PMID: 26251824
Abstract
•We ran a literature review on degeneration of the VTA in PD and added new cases.•The literature unequivocally demonstrates that the VTA is involved in PD.•Our new cases support previous ones with significant degeneration in the VTA.
The involvement of dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in Parkinson’s disease (PD) has not been universally recognized by neuroscientists and neurologists. Here, we conduct a review of previous research documenting dopaminergic neuronal loss in both the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) and VTA and add three new post-mortem PD cases to the literature.
PD and control brains were sectioned, stained for tyrosine hydroxylase, and cells in the SNpc and VTA were counted.
Based on the review, we report two main results: (1) the VTA does degenerate in PD, and (2) the VTA degenerates less than the SNpc.
Inconsistent clinical information about these cases limits our ability to interpret how the VTA contributes to PD symptoms. However, our data in combination with prior PD neuropathological cases in the literature unequivocally establish that the VTA is involved in PD, and could be relevant for future investigation of non-motor symptoms in PD.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The vulnerable ventral tegmental area in Parkinson’s disease
- Creators
- Stephanie L Alberico - Department of Neurology, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, United StatesMartin D Cassell - Anatomy and Cell Biology, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, United StatesNandakumar S Narayanan - Department of Neurology, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, United States
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Basal ganglia, Vol.5(2-3), pp.51-55
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.baga.2015.06.001
- PMID
- 26251824
- PMCID
- PMC4523275
- NLM abbreviation
- Basal Ganglia
- ISSN
- 2210-5336
- eISSN
- 2210-5336
- Publisher
- Elsevier GmbH
- Grant note
- name: University of Iowa Pharmacological Sciences Training Grant, award: 5T32GM067795-11; name: Dr. Narayanan’s R01, award: NS089470
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 08/2015
- Academic Unit
- Neurology; Anatomy and Cell Biology; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984020849802771
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