RGD Reference Report - Developmental loss and resistance to MPTP toxicity of dopaminergic neurones in substantia nigra pars compacta of gamma-synuclein, alpha-synuclein and double alpha/gamma-synuclein null mutant mice. - Rat Genome Database

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Developmental loss and resistance to MPTP toxicity of dopaminergic neurones in substantia nigra pars compacta of gamma-synuclein, alpha-synuclein and double alpha/gamma-synuclein null mutant mice.

Authors: Robertson, DC  Schmidt, O  Ninkina, N  Jones, PA  Sharkey, J  Buchman, VL 
Citation: Robertson DC, etal., J Neurochem. 2004 Jun;89(5):1126-36.
RGD ID: 6478802
Pubmed: PMID:15147505   (View Abstract at PubMed)
DOI: DOI:10.1111/j.1471-4159.2004.02378.x   (Journal Full-text)

The growing body of evidence suggests that intermediate products of alpha-synuclein aggregation cause death of sensitive populations of neurones, particularly dopaminergic neurones, which is a critical event in the development of Parkinson's disease and other synucleinopathies. The role of two other members of the family, beta-synuclein and gamma-synuclein, in neurodegeneration is less understood. We studied the effect of inactivation of gamma-synuclein gene on mouse midbrain dopaminergic neurones. Reduced number of dopaminergic neurones was found in substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) but not in ventral tegmental area (VTA) of early post-natal and adult gamma-synuclein null mutant mice. Similar reductions were revealed in alpha-synuclein and double alpha-synuclein/gamma-synuclein null mutant animals. However, in none of these mutants did this lead to significant changes of striatal dopamine or dopamine metabolite levels and motor dysfunction. In all three studied types of null mutants, dopaminergic neurones of SNpc were resistant to methyl-phenyl-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) toxicity. We propose that both synucleins are important for effective survival of SNpc neurones during critical period of development but, in the absence of these proteins, permanent activation of compensatory mechanisms allow many neurones to survive and become resistant to certain toxic insults.

RGD Manual Disease Annotations    Click to see Annotation Detail View
TermQualifierEvidenceWithReferenceNotesSourceOriginal Reference(s)
Parkinsonism  ISOSnca (Mus musculus)6478802; 6478802 RGD 
Parkinsonism  ISOSncg (Mus musculus)6478802; 6478802 RGD 
Parkinsonism  IMP 6478802; 6478802 RGD 

Objects Annotated

Genes (Rattus norvegicus)
Snca  (synuclein alpha)
Sncg  (synuclein, gamma)

Genes (Mus musculus)
Snca  (synuclein, alpha)
Sncg  (synuclein, gamma)

Genes (Homo sapiens)
SNCA  (synuclein alpha)
SNCG  (synuclein gamma)


Additional Information