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Department of Neurology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
Glutamic acid and its analogs are excitotoxins that might contribute to the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD). We measured four subtypes of glutamate binding sites autoradiographically in 20-µm sections from control and PD midbrains. N-Methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) binding sites (eight control, eight PD) were very low in control (20 ± 7 [SEM] fmol/mg protein) and were reduced in the PD pars compacta (2.6 ± 1.1 fmol/mg protein; p < 0.02). NMDA binding was also reduced in the red nucleus but not in periaqueductal gray (PAG). We measured 
-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid (AMPA), metabotropic, and non-NMDA, nonkainate, non-quisqualate (NNKQ) sites in 10 PD and 12 control midbrains. AMPA binding sites were reduced from 175 ± 20 to 99 ± 16 (p < 0.05) fmol/mg protein in PD pars compacta, NNKQ sites from 86 ± 10 to 50 ± 12 (p < 0.05) fmol/mg protein in total nigra, and metabotropic sites (15 ± 5 fmol/mg protein) were unchanged. AMPA, metabotropic, and NNKQ binding were unchanged in red nucleus and PAG. The very low number of NMDA binding sites suggests that factors other than excitotoxicity mediated via NMDA receptors on nigral cell bodies play roles in the pathogenesis of PD. There may be a generalized loss of NMDA receptors in PD brains. AMPA and NNKQ binding sites appear to be located on dopamine neurons, although the role of NNKQ sites in normal nervous system function and human disease is unknown.
Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. John B. Penney, Jr., Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114.
Supported by the Kenneth E. Campbell Foundation, the Markey Trust, and USPHS grants NS15655 and AG08671. M.C.D. was supported by a Raymond B. Bauer Fellowship from the Michigan Parkinson Foundation.
Presented in part at the 42nd annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, Miami Beach, FL, April 1990.
Received August 27, 1990. Accepted for publication in final form July 23, 1991.
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