Age-Related Features of α-Synuclein Pathology in the Brain on Modeling the Preclinical Stage of Parkinson's Disease in Rats.

The pathomorphological signs of Parkinson's disease (PD), an untreatable neurodegenerative condition, include the formation of pathological α-synuclein-positive inclusions in neurons. Studies using a model of the preclinical stage of PD in middle-aged and elderly rats based on increasing suppression of brain proteasome activity, along with analysis by light and confocal microscopy, addressed the presence and locations of pathological α-synuclein-positive inclusions in dopaminergic neurons in the compact part of the substantia nigra (SNc) and olfactory bulb. In the model of BP, α-synuclein aggregates were located in the cytoplasm of dopaminergic neurons in the olfactory bulb and the cytoplasm and nuclei of dopaminergic neurons in the SNc. A characteristic feature of α-synuclein pathology in aging rats was deposition of larger α-synuclein aggregates in the bodies of nerve cells in these locations as compared with middle-aged rats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]