ABSTRACT (232 words)
Nerve/glial antigen 2 glial cells (NG2-glia) are a uniformly distributed
pool of cells in the central nervous system. In addition, to serve as
oligodendrocytes progenitors, NG2-glia might also fulfil physiological
roles, although such functions’ mechanistic nature remains unclear.
Here, we investigated NG2-glia expression in the striatum of
6-hydroxydopamine lesioned Wistar adult male rats presenting
L-DOPA induced dyskinesia (LID). Immunoconfocal morphometry,
immunohistochemistry, and western blot techniques were performed to
label NG2-glia, astrocyte (GFAP), and microglia (OX-42) in the striatum.
Our data revealed that the L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia produces a decrease
of the NG2-glia density in the striatum, an area critical to Parkinson’s
disease pathophysiology L-DOPA induced dyskinesia instalment. NG2-glia
presented a negative correlation with L-DOPA induced dyskinesia score
opposing to GFAP and OX-42 immunopositive cells. The doxycycline
antidyskinetic therapy induced a robust increment of NG2-glia restoring
standards beforehand L-DOPA induced dyskinesia manifestation. The
morphometric analysis identified a NG2 reactive phenotype in the
striatum of parkinsonian rats, under L-DOPA treatment, not altered by
doxycycline. NG2-glia immunolabeled cells do not colocalize with OX-42
or GFAP-labeled cells. In conclusion, our findings provide the first
description of the distribution and morphological changes of NG2-glia in
the parkinsonian and dyskinetic rats’ striatum. The NG2-glia expression
rise in the striatum positively correlated to the decrease in L-DOPA
induced dyskinesia scores. The results reveal an aspect of the NG2-glia
as a potential therapeutic target for Parkinson´s disease and L-DOPA
induced dyskinesia.
Keywords: NG2-glia; Parkinson’s disease; L-DOPA-induced
dyskinesia; Astrocyte; Microglia.