The pattern of neurodegeneration in Huntington's disease: a comparative study of cannabinoid, dopamine, adenosine and GABAA receptor alterations in the human basal ganglia in Huntington's disease
Section snippets
Tissue collection
The human brain tissue used in these studies was obtained from the New Zealand Neurological Foundation Human Brain Bank in the Department of Anatomy, University of Auckland and the study was approved by the University of Auckland Human Subjects Ethics Committee.
All control subjects had previously been in good health with no known history of neurological disease or drug treatment and all had died suddenly without the opportunity of receiving any form of medical treatment. For both control and
Results
The principal aim of this study was to investigate the pattern of cannabinoid CB1, dopamine D1 and D2, adenosine A2a and GABAA receptor changes in the basal ganglia in the human brain in early (grade 0), intermediate (grade 1, 2) and late (grade 3) neuropathological grades of Huntington's disease in order to gain further information on the possible neuronal co-localization of these receptors in the human basal ganglia and on the sequence and pattern of neurodegeneration in Huntington's disease.
Discussion
It is now well established that medium spiny neurons of the caudate nucleus and putamen are preferentially vulnerable in Huntington's disease.27 Furthermore, the subset of the medium spiny projection neurons containing GABA/enk demonstrate preferential dysfunction in terminal areas in the GPe.49., 52., 61. In contrast, medium spiny neurons containing GABA/substance P projecting to the GPi are more resistant to dysfunction in early Huntington's disease. However, conflicting information on the
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by grants from the Health Research Council of New Zealand, the New Zealand Neurological Foundation and the New Zealand Lottery Board. Michelle Glass was supported by the J. B. Miller Postgraduate Scholarship from the New Zealand Neurological Foundation Inc.
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