Abstract:

DA-rich cell suspensions were obtained from tissue dissected from the ventral mesencephalon of 12-15 day embryos (donor and host, wistar rats) ,6months after 6-OHDA lesion, 5-40 μl of the suspension (30,000-40,000 cells/μl) was implanted at one or several sites (5μl/site) in the caudate nucleus, iPsilateral to the lesion. Overall, about 10 out of 14 implants survived.Most of the implants contained a lot of surviving DAcontaining cell bodies, arranged in clusters at the site of injection. In animals with multi-focal implantation in the caudate necleus, the grafts seemed to be smaller in size and contain fewer DA neurons. A number of DA terminals were found in the neighbouring host brain tissue. The results indicate that suspension grafts of embryonic nigral tissue can ameliorate behavioural impairments induced by dopamine-depleting 6-OHDA lesions. Multi-focal injections of suspension grafts were found to provide a more extensive behavioural recovery as compared with rats receiving only a single graft.