The pontine micturition center or Barrington's nucleus (BN) - besides regulating micturition - co-regulates the activity of other pelvic viscera such as the colon and genitals. At present, this issue is gaining particular importance due to: (i) recent findings of alpha-synuclein in BN, (ii) known urinary dysfunction in parkinsonian patients (part of the so-called non-motor symptoms), other patients with dementia and as in very old individuals; and (iii) its proximity to the pedunculopontine nucleus, a surgical target in deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease (PD). The structural and functional organization of the micturition reflex comprises a coordinating action of somatic motor activity with both divisions of the autonomic nervous system, modulated by trunk encephalic and cortical centers that involve the BN as locus coeruleus and periaqueductal gray matter, among other trunk encephalic structures. The involvement of dopaminergic activity (physiologic inhibition of the micturition reflex mediated by dopaminergic D1 activity) that diminishes in Parkinsonism and leads to overactivity of the micturition reflex is also well known. In this review, the integrating role of the BN in the context of vesical and gastrointestinal behavior is revisited, and the principal morpho-functional findings that associate dysfunction with the urinary disorders that appear during the pre-motor stages of PD are summarized. (C) 2014 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION:Microtransplantation of fetal dopaminergic cells has been used over the past ten years with good results in models of Parkinson's disease.OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the effect of microtransplantation of fetal dopaminergic cells 'seeded' in the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNpr) and striate (St) simultaneously.MATERIAL AND METHODS:The animals received a transplant or microtransplant of cells into the St and SNpr ipsilateral to the lesion in the substantia nigra pars compacta or to both regions. Depending on the site and technique used the following experimental groups were considered: I. Macrotransplantation to the St (n = 20); II. Microtransplant to the St (n = 20); III. Microtransplant to St + SNpr (n = 20); IV. Microtransplant to St + SNpr (n = 20); V. Macrotransplantation to SNpr (n = 20); VI. Microtransplantation to SNpr (n = 20); and VII. Control (lesion only) (n = 20). The rotations induced by D-amphetamine (5 mg/kg i.p.) and by apomorphine were studied 1, 2, 3 and 6 months and 3 and 6 months respectively after transplantation. Three months after transplantation we studied the motor asymmetry shown by the animals by means of the ladder test.RESULTS:The rotations were reduced in the groups with intrastriate transplantation. Comparison between the surgical techniques showed nonsignificant differences between them. The ladder test showed significant differences in use of the limbs in all experimental groups. Use of the left limb was significantly reduced in all groups.CONCLUSIONS:Modification of the rotations seems more sensitive to the site of transplant than to the technique used. It seems that the skills studied using the ladder test are not altered by the microtransplant technique.

INTRODUCTION Transplantation of foetal dopaminergic cells has been extensively used as restorative treatment for Parkinson's disease. OBJECTIVE This study was carried out to determine the survival, modifications in rotatory activity induced by D-amphetamine and total content of dopamine in the striatal and nigra regions of hemiparkinsonian rats which had had foetal mesencephalic cells simultaneously transplanted to the striatum and pars reticularis of the substancia nigra. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study was done using adult male Wistar rats weighing 200-250 gms. The following experimental groups were formed, depending on the site of transplant: St: transplant to striatum (n = 2); SNr: transplant to SNr (n = 20), ST + Snr; transplant to striatum and SNr simultaneously n = 20; and control (lesion with no transplant) n = 20. We studied the rotatory activity induced by D-amphetamine 1, 2, 3 and 6 months after transplantation. After this time the rats were deeply anaesthetized and randomly allocated for morphological study or biochemical determination of the total dopamine content in the St and SNr using the HPLC technique. RESULTS Study of conduct showed no significant differences in rotatory activity induced by D-amphetamine between the groups with intrastriatal transplants, but there was a difference between these and the SNr and control groups. Biochemical analysis showed that striatal DA content was significantly greater in the ST for the groups with intrastriatal transplants. The content of substancia nigra DA was significantly greater in the SNr of the ST + SNr group, followed by the ST group. Morphometric study showed differences, which were not significant, between ST transplanted animals and significant differences between the SNr transplanted group with a significant increase in survival of the SNr of the ST + SNr group. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest a positive effect due to intrastriatal transplants compared to survival following intranigral transplants.

INTRODUCTIONStudies of neural transplants in experimental models of Parkinson's disease have concentrated their attention on ectopic transplants of foetal mesencephalic cells to denervated striatum. However, the external globus pallidus has recently been shown to play an important part in the physiopathology of this disease.OBJECTIVEBearing in mind the importance of loss of extra-striatal dopamine in the genesis of the clinical signs found in parkinsonism, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of foetal mesencephalic transplantation to the globus pallidus of hemiparkinsonian rats.MATERIAL AND METHODSFollowing conventional transplantation methodolgy, suspensions of cells from the ventral mesencephalum of rat embryos (E-14) were implanted. The tissue was grafted into the striatum, pallidum-striatum and pallidum areas of rats with unilateral lesions of the striatonigral bundle. One, two, three and six months after transplantation, the rotatory activity induced by D-amphetamine was evaluated. The rotatory behaviour induced by apomorphine was evaluated at three months. Motor ability of the front legs was evaluated in all experimental groups three months after transplantation using the 'ladder test'.RESULTSIn the experimental groups in which a transplant was made to the globus pallidus there was a significant reduction (p < 0.01) in rotatory activity induced by D-amphetamine and by apomorphine as compared with the non-transplanted groups.CONCLUSIONSTransplants of foetal dopaminergic cells survive in the globus pallidus of hemiparkinsonian rats and can improve the rotational activity induced by dopaminergic agonists.

OBJECTIVE:The objective of this paper was to review information related to the various factors which may trigger the mechanisms of cell death, induced or programmed, which take place in the nervous system and their relationship with the aetiopathogenesis of the neurodegenerative diseases.DEVELOPMENT:In recent years it has been recognized that cell death may be not only the consequence of accidental damage but also a sign of a suicide programme. This form of death is currently known as apoptosis. It is a process which is morphologically distinct from accidental cell death or necrosis. It does not cause an inflammatory response. This type of death is not only involved in the development and haemostasis of tissues, but also in setting off neuronal degeneration in experimental models of Parkinson's disease, Huntington's chorea, etc.CONCLUSIONS:In the cell death occurring in neurodegenerative diseases there is more than one induction mechanisms. Understanding the factors which trigger cell death, and the chain of events leading to this, gives grounds for the design of new pharmacological strategies for the treatment of these diseases.

INTRODUCTION:Evaluation of rotatory activity induced by dopaminergic agonists is the most widely used test of conduct for the measurement of dopaminergic depletion of a unilateral lesion of the striatonigral pathway caused by 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) in rats, since it is quantitatively related to the extension of the dopaminergic denervation.OBJECTIVE:The objective of this study was to evaluate, from different angles, the changes in conduct seen in the model of unilateral lesion with 6-OHDA and to establish correlation with the rotation induced by D-amphetamine and by apomorphine and the ladder test.MATERIAL AND METHODS:Male Wistar rats were used. Lesions were produced in the SNpc by stereotactic injection of 6-OHDA into the right hemisphere and the effectiveness of the lesions was studied using the rotary conduct induced by D-amphetamine and apomorphine. The motor ability of the front legs was measured by the ladder test, carried out under standard and forced conditions.RESULTS:All the animals with lesions had difficulty in reaching food with both legs, although the most pronounced deficit was in the leg contralateral to the lesion. The ladder test correlated better with rotatory activity induced by apomorphine than by D-amphetamine.CONCLUSION:The animals with most dopamine loss showed most deficient use of their front legs.

We have now applied the enzyme immunoassay using anti-NGF monoclonal antibody (MAb) 27/21 and a blocking test validating the specificity of the immunoreactivity for NGF in serum samples to examine NGF levels in normal rat sera, hemiparkinsonian rat sera, normal monkey sera, and MPTP-treated monkey sera. The levels of NGF in treated animals showed reductions when compared with serum from normal animals. The NGF level alterations observed in lesioned animals and in human parkinsonian patients evidence a relationship between this neurotrophic factor and the neurodegenerative changes observed in Parkinson disease (PD).