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Dopamine D2 receptor may be involved in the regulation of cortical-striatum synaptic transmission and autonomic activity in PD mice by exercise

ZHAO Gang, ZHANG Dan-Yu, LIU Xiao-Li^*, QIAO De-Cai

Physical Education and Sports College, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to reveal the role of cortical-striatum postsynaptic dopamine D2 receptor (D2R) in improving motor behavioral dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease (PD) mice by exercise. C57/BL6 male adult mice were randomly divided into control, PD and PD plus exercise groups. The mice were injected with 6-OHDA in striatum to establish a unilateral injury PD model. The exercise intervention program was uniform speed running (16 m/min, 40 min/d, 5 d per week for 4 weeks). Autonomic activity of mice was tested by open field test. Cortical-striatum synaptic transmission efficiency was assessed by peak amplitude of field excitatory postsynaptic potential (fEPSP) recorded from in vitro brain slides. Meanwhile, the effects of D2R agonist on autonomic activity and cortical-striatal synaptic transmission were observed. The results showed that, co mpared with PD group, PD plus exercise group exhibited significantly increased autonomic motor distance and proportion of fast-moving (P < 0.05), as well as decreased maximum amplitude of fEPSP under increasing stimulation intensity (0.75–3.00 pA) (P < 0.05) and slope of stimulus-response curve. Compared with PD mice without D2R agonist, the movement distance and rapid movement ratio of PD mice treated with D2R agonist were increased significantly (P < 0.05), whereas fEPSP peak amplitude (P < 0.05) and the slope of stimulus-response curve were decreased. These results indicate that either early exercise intervention or D2R agonist treatment can inhibit the abnormal increase of cortical-striatum synaptic transmission and improve the autonomic motor ability in PD mice, suggesting that the cortical-striatum synaptic D2R may be an important molecular target for exercise to improve the autonomic motor ability of PD mice.

Key words: Parkinson’s disease; exercise; cortical-striatum; dopamine D2 receptor; autonomic motor ability; synaptic transmission

Received: 2018-11-19　　Accepted: 2019-03-13

Corresponding author: 刘晓莉　　E-mail: xiaolil@bnu.edu.cn

DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2019.0029

Citing This Article：

ZHAO Gang, ZHANG Dan-Yu, LIU Xiao-Li, QIAO De-Cai. Dopamine D2 receptor may be involved in the regulation of cortical-striatum synaptic transmission and autonomic activity in PD mice by exercise. Acta Physiol Sin 2019; 71 (4): 547-554 (in Chinese with English abstract).