Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Aug 1;5(2-3):51-55.
doi: 10.1016/j.baga.2015.06.001.

The Vulnerable Ventral Tegmental Area in Parkinson's Disease

Stephanie L Alberico  1 , Martin D Cassell  2 , Nandakumar S Narayanan  1
Affiliations

The Vulnerable Ventral Tegmental Area in Parkinson's Disease

Stephanie L Alberico et al. Basal Ganglia. .

Abstract

Introduction: The involvement of dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in Parkinson's disease (PD) has not been universally recognized by neuroscientists and neurologists. Here, we conduct a review of previous research documenting dopaminergic neuronal loss in both the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) and VTA and add three new post-mortem PD cases to the literature.

Methods: PD and control brains were sectioned, stained for tyrosine hydroxylase, and cells in the SNpc and VTA were counted.

Results: Based on the review, we report two main results: 1) the VTA does degenerate in PD, and 2) the VTA degenerates less than the SNpc.

Conclusion: Inconsistent clinical information about these cases limits our ability to interpret how the VTA contributes to PD symptoms. However, our data in combination with prior PD neuropathological cases in the literature unequivocally establish that the VTA is involved in PD, and could be relevant for future investigation of non-motor symptoms in PD.

Keywords: Parkinson’s disease; Ventral tegmental area.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A. Mean number of TH positive cells for controls (black line) and individual case TH positive cell counts from rostral to caudal (grey dashed lines). B. Average TH positive cell counts in the VTA and SNpc of controls (black) and PD cases (grey). C. Representative images of staining (left) for TH of a Control (top) and PD (bottom) cases and the respective cell labeling (right).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Davie CA. A review of Parkinson’s disease. Br Med Bull. 2008;86:109–127. - PubMed
    1. Jellinger KA. Pathology of Parkinson’s disease. Changes other than the nigrostriatal pathway. Mol Chem Neuropathol Spons Int Soc Neurochem World Fed Neurol Res Groups Neurochem Cerebrospinal Fluid. 1991;14:153–197. - PubMed
    1. Hur EE, Zaborszky L. Vglut2 afferents to the medial prefrontal and primary somatosensory cortices: a combined retrograde tracing in situ hybridization study [corrected] J Comp Neurol. 2005;483:351–373. - PubMed
    1. Nair-Roberts RG, Chatelain-Badie SD, Benson E, White-Cooper H, Bolam JP, Ungless MA. Stereological estimates of dopaminergic, GABAergic and glutamatergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area, substantia nigra and retrorubral field in the rat. Neuroscience. 2008;152:1024–1031. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lammel S, Hetzel A, Häckel O, Jones I, Liss B, Roeper J. Unique properties of mesoprefrontal neurons within a dual mesocorticolimbic dopamine system. Neuron. 2008;57:760–773. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources