Intrastriatal dopamine D1 antagonism dampens neural plasticity in response to motor cortex lesion

Motor cortex lesions in rats partially denervate the striatum, producing behavioral deficits and inducing reactive neuroplasticity. Plastic responses include changes in growth-associated protein marker expression and anatomical restructuring. Corticostriatal plasticity is dependent on dopamine at the striatal target, where D1 receptor signaling reinforces behaviorally relevant neural activity. To determine whether striatal dopamine D1 receptor signaling is important for the growth-associated protein responses and behavioral recovery that follow unilateral motor cortex aspiration, the dopamine D1 receptor antagonist SCH23390 was intrastriatally infused in cortically lesioned animals. After a cortical aspiration lesion in Long Evans rats, the growth-associated proteins SCG10 and GAP-43 were upregulated in the cortex contralateral to the lesion at 30 days post-lesion. However, continuous unilateral intrastriatal infusion of SCH23390 prevented this aspiration-induced upregulation. Furthermore, lesioned rats demonstrated spontaneous sensorimotor improvement, in terms of limb-use symmetry, about 1 month post-lesion. This improvement was prevented with chronic intrastriatal SCH23390 infusion. The D1 receptor influence may be important to normalize corticostriatal activity (and observable behavior), either in a long-term manner or temporarily until other more permanent means of synaptic regulation, such as sprouting or synaptogenesis, may be implemented.