As shown in Figure 1A, apomorphine-induced rotations reached seven turns per min at 2 weeks and increased gradually from week 2 to week 5 after a buy CH5424802 unilateral injection of 6-OHDA into the right MFB. No rotations (0 turns per 30 min) were observed during 5 weeks of testing in the sham group. To evaluate alterations of dopaminergic neurones in substantia nigra, immunostaining and Western blot

analyses were performed to examine TH expression. In the sham group, TH expression remained relatively stable at several time points after operation; therefore, we utilized saline-lesioned rats at 2 weeks after lesion as a control for the PD group. FEZ1 and GFAP performed similar comparison. Western blot analysis showed that in 6-OHDA-lesioned rats, TH immunoreactivity gradually decreased, in a statistically significant manner, from week 2 to week 5 in striatum (Figure 1B,C) and in substantia nigra (Figure 1D,E) selleck kinase inhibitor of the lesioned hemisphere when compared with the TH immunoreactivity of the sham-operated rats. Relative density of TH/β-actin in 6-OHDA-lesioned rats (0.39 ± 0.02 in striatum and 0.35 ± 0.04 in substantia nigra) at 5 weeks after injury was markedly lower than it in sham-operated rats (0.87 ± 0.07

in striatum and 1.06 ± 0.05 in substantia nigra). The decrease in TH immunoreactivity was further confirmed by Nissl staining (Figure 1F) and TH immunostaining (Figure 1G). 6-OHDA lesions induced a dramatic unilateral loss of dopaminergic neurones in substantia nigra pars compacta of PD rats (F″ and G″) but not in sham-operated rats (F′ and G′). The mRNA expression of FEZ1 in rat striatum and substantia nigra was analysed by real-time PCR. Compared with the sham-operated rats (relative value was 0.033 ± 0.002), the FEZ1 mRNA level in striatum was markedly increased during the initial post-injury period, reached peak level (0.038 ± 0.002) at 2 weeks after

injury, and then gradually decreased (Figure 2A). However, in substantia nigra, FEZ1 mRNA expression levels were significantly enhanced at 2 weeks after injury, peaked at 3 weeks after injury (0.63 ± 0.002 compared with 0.46 ± 0.004 in the sham-operated rats), and then decreased (Figure 2B). FEZ1 mRNA expression level MycoClean Mycoplasma Removal Kit was higher in striatum of the PD group at 2–3 weeks after lesion than in striatum of the sham group. However, in substantia nigra, FEZ1 expression levels were higher in the PD group at 2–5 weeks after lesion when compared with the sham group. We next examined FEZ1 protein expression by Western blot analysis. As shown in Figure 2C,D, FEZ1 protein levels mirrored mRNA levels, as FEZ1 protein levels were significantly increased in striatum at 2 weeks (0.82 ± 0.07 compared with 0.75 ± 0.06 in the sham-operated rats) after surgery compared with the sham group and then decreased to normal levels at 4 weeks after surgery (0.62 ± 0.03).