Female mice are resilient to age-related decline of substantia nigra dopamine neuron firing parameters

摘要: The degeneration of substantia nigra (SN) dopamine neurons is a central feature in the pathology associated with Parkinson′s disease, which characterized by progressive loss motor and cognitive functions. largest risk factors for disease are age sex; most cases occur after 60 males have nearly twice incidence as females. While much research has focused on mechanisms underlying neuron degeneration, very little work considered influence these two to presentation. In this work, we performed whole cell patch clamp recordings brain slices study alterations intrinsic firing properties single C57BL/6 mice across ages between sexes. We observed decline activity 18 months age, while from females remained largely unaffected. A semiquantitative analysis midbrain populations revealed slight decrease only males, did not change. This was also accompanied increases expression genes that been linked including PTEN-induced kinase 1 (PINK1) both females, ubiquitin ligase parkin, primarily males. These impairments function may represent vulnerability further insults could predispose cells neurodegenerative diseases such Parkinson′s.