The effects of early developmental stress and exercise intervention on neurodegeneration in a rat model of Parkinson's disease

Early developmental stress has been shown to produce numerous deleterious effects, e.g. the later development of affective disorders, and this has been related to chronic enhanced hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity. Animal studies have shown that maternally separated rats exhibit increased anxiety- and depression-like behaviour in adulthood, although other evidence shows hyperactivity and impulsivity in such cases. Given that stress has these behavioural effects, it is of interest to determine whether early developmental stress might enhance the toxicity of a later unrelated neural insult. The 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) model of Parkinson's disease involves the selective unilateral lesion of nigrostriatal dopamine neurons. In this group of studies it was hypothesized that maternal separation might enhance the toxic effects of 6-OHDA.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Division of Neurosurgery

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Warton, Fleur L

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Russell, Vivienne A

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/11069

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/11069