Monoaminergic PET imaging and histopathological correlation in unilateral and bilateral 6-hydroxydopamine lesioned rat models of Parkinson's disease: a longitudinal in-vivo study.

Carbon-11 labeled dihydrotetrabenazine ((11)C-DTBZ) binds to the vesicular monoamine transporter 2 and has been used to assess nigro-striatal integrity in animal models and patients with Parkinson's disease. Here, we applied (11)C-DTBZ positron emission tomography (PET) to obtain longitudinally in-vivo assessment of striatal dopaminergic loss in the classic unilateral and in a novel bilateral 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesion rat model. Forty-four Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 3 sub-groups: 1.