Histaminergic activity in a rodent model of Parkinson's disease.

Rats lesioned shortly after birth with 6-OHDA have been proposed to be a near-ideal model of severe Parkinson's disease, because of non-lethality of the procedure, near-total destruction of nigrostriatal dopaminergic fibers, and near-total dopamine (DA) denervation of striatum. There are scarce data that in Parkinson's disease, activity of the central histaminergic system is increased. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine histamine content in the brain and the effect of histamine receptor antagonists on behavior of adult rats.

Ontogenetic noradrenergic lesion alters histaminergic activity in adult rats.

To determine whether noradrenergic nerves might have a modulatory role on the sensitivity or reactivity of histaminergic receptor systems in brain, behavioral effects of the respective histamine H1, H2 and H3 antagonists S(+)chlorpheniramine, cimetidine and thioperimide in control adult rats were compared to the effects in adult rats that had been lesioned as neonates with the noradrenergic neurotoxin DSP-4. On the 1st and 3rd days after birth rat pups were treated with either saline or DSP-4 (50 mg/kg sc), then returned to their home cages with the dam. At 8 weeks when rats were tested, S(+)chlorpheniramine (10 mg/kg ip) was found to increase locomotor activity in intact and DSP-4 lesioned rats, while cimetidine (5 mg/kg, ip) and thioperimide (5 mg/kg, ip) increased activity several-fold solely in the DSP-4 group.

Nitric oxide modulates the amphetamine effect on [3H]glucose uptake in the brain of rats prenatally exposed to lead.

Glucose is the main source of energy for the central nervous system (CNS). In this study, we examined the effects of the psychostimulant amphetamine (AMPH) and the neuronal mediator nitric oxide (NO) on [3H]glucose uptake in the brain of adult rats that had been prenatally exposed to lead. Lead [Pb(CH3COO)2 .