Increased survival of embryonic dopaminergic neurons when transplanted to hypothermic rats
Field:	Disorders of the nervous system
Authors:	Karlsson, Jenny Emgård, Mia Gidö, Gunilla Wieloch, Tadeusz Brundin, Patrik
Address of presenting author:	Sektionen för Nervcellsöverlevnad Wallenberg Neurocentrum Sölvegatan 17 223 62 Lund
E-mail:	Jenny.Karlsson@mphy.lu.se
Phone:	046-2220524
Fax:	046-2220531
Text of abstract:	AIM: Hypothermia can reduce neuronal death caused by ischemia and traumatic brain injury. Therefore, we wanted to investigate whether mild hypothermia in rats receiving a transplant of embryonic mesencephalic rat tissue increases survival of the implanted dopaminergic neurons. METHODS: Cell suspensions derived from embryonic (E 14) ventral mesencephalic tissue was transplanted into rats that were kept hypothermic (32-33°C) or normothermic (37°C) during transplantation and for the following 90 minutes. Four weeks after surgery, the number of surviving transplanted dopaminergic neurons and graft volume were evaluated. RESULTS: We found that mild hypothermia significantly increased the survival of transplanted dopaminergic neurons to 171% of control values in normothermic rats. However, the graft volume did not differ between the experimental groups. CONCLUSION: The exact mechanisms behind hypothermic neuroprotection of transplanted dopaminergic neurons remain to be established. However, this experiment demonstrates that the first 90 min after surgery is critical for graft survival.
Keywords:	Neural transplantation, Hypothermia, Parkinson’s disease, Dopamine, Mesencephalic

Created 2000-03-24