GABAA receptor subunit expression in intrastriatal ventral mesencephalic transplants

To compare the expression of GABAA receptor subunits in the normal substantia nigra and in fetal mesencephalic neurons ectopically transplanted into the dopamine-depleted striatum, we have employed single and double immunocytochemical approaches using tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and alpha 1, alpha 2, alpha 3, and beta 2/3 GABAA receptor subunit specific antibodies. In the substantia nigra, alpha 1 and beta 2/3 GABAA receptor subunits were labeled in processes in the pars compacta (SNc) and, more intensely, in both somata and processes in the pars reticulata (SNr). There was no clear TH and alpha 1 or beta 2/3 colocalization, with the exception of some TH-immunoreactive (-ir) neurons that showed a weak immunoreactivity for beta 2/3. Sections immunolabeled for alpha 2 showed a faint diffuse labeling for this subunit both in the SNr and in the SNc. Scattered somata were immunopositive for alpha 2, and some of them were also TH-ir. The labeling for alpha 3 and TH showed that TH-positive neurons expressed intense alpha 3 immunoreactivity, although some TH-negative somata in the SNr expressed weak alpha 3 immunoreactivity. In the transplants, double immunostaining procedures showed that the labeling for alpha 1 or beta 2/3 appeared particularly concentrated in patches of intensely immunoreactive neuronal processes that surrounded TH-ir cells, but these processes were not TH-ir. In the case of alpha 2, diffuse immunostaining was observed all over the graft, with some scattered positive somata. Only a few of them were also TH positive. Sections immunoreacted for alpha 3 and TH revealed that TH-ir neurons expressed intense alpha 3 immunoreactivity, and that only a few TH-negative neurons were weakly positive for alpha 3. These results show that mesencephalic tissue ectopically grafted into the striatum develops a pattern of GABAA receptor expression similar to that normally expressed in situ, and particularly that the grafted dopaminergic neurons express similar GABAA receptors, including the alpha 3 subunit. This might be due to the similarity of GABAergic afferents to these neurons in the SNc and the graft, or that at the time of transplantation this expression had already been determined.