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Increased DMT1 expression and iron content in MPTP-treated C57BL/6 mice

Jiang Hong, Qian Zhongming, Xie Junxia

Department of Physiology, Medical College of Qingdao University

Abstract

Iron plays a key role in Parkinson's disease (PD). To illustrate the mechanism underlyingthe increase of iron in substantia nigra (SN) in PD, changes of the expression of divalent metal transporter1 (DMT1 ) and iron content were examined in SN in 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1, 2, 3, 6-tetrahydropyridine(MPTP) treated mice using immunohistochemistry and histochemistry respectively. Following MPTP treat-ment for 3 d, elevated iron staining was found in SN. A further increase in iron content was observed after7 d. In these lesioned animals, tyrosine hydroxylase -immunoreactive DA neurons exhibited a decrease innumber and morphological changes as well. There were two isoforms of DMT1 expressed in SN of mice. Af-ter MPTP treatment, the expression of DMT1 without IRE form increased in either group, whereas DMT1with IRE form increased only after 7 d of MPTP treatment.These observations suggest that DMTl is possibly
involved in the process of iron accumulation in SN of MPTP-treated mice，which might be responsible for the subsequent death of DA neurons.

Key words: Iron;Parkinson's disease;Divalent metal transporter 1;Substantia nigra

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Citing This Article：

Jiang Hong, Qian Zhongming, Xie Junxia. Increased DMT1 expression and iron content in MPTP-treated C57BL/6 mice. Acta Physiol Sin 2003; 55 (5): (in Chinese with English abstract).