Systemic administration of 6-OHDA to rhesus monkeys upregulates HLA-DR expression in brain microvasculature.

Background: We recently developed a nonhuman primate model of cardiac dysautonomia by systemic dosing of the catecholaminergic neurotoxin 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA). The aim of this study was to assess whether systemic 6-OHDA affects the central nervous system of nonhuman primates, in particular the dopaminergic nigrostriatal system.

Methods: Brain sections from adult rhesus monkeys that received systemic 6-OHDA (50 mg/kg intravenously; n=5) and were necropsied 3 months later, as well as normal controls (n=5) were used in this study.

Cardiac sympathetic denervation in 6-OHDA-treated nonhuman primates.

Cardiac sympathetic neurodegeneration and dysautonomia affect patients with sporadic and familial Parkinson's disease (PD) and are currently proposed as prodromal signs of PD. We have recently developed a nonhuman primate model of cardiac dysautonomia by iv 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA). Our in vivo findings included decreased cardiac uptake of a sympathetic radioligand and circulating catecholamines; here we report the postmortem characterization of the model.