Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 3, 2026
Dissecting the Non-human Primate Brain in Stereotaxic Space
Published on: July 16, 2009
Reproducibility of a Parkinsonism-related metabolic brain network in non-human primates: A descriptive pilot study
Yilong Ma1, Tom H Johnston2, Shichun Peng1
1Center for Neurosciences, the Feinstein Institute fo Medical Research, Manhasset, NY, USA.
Background:
We have previously defined a parkinsonism-related metabolic brain network in rhesus macaques using a high-resolution research positron emission tomography camera. This brief article reports a descriptive pilot study to assess the reproducibility of network activity and regional glucose metabolism in independent parkinsonian macaques using a clinical positron emission tomography/CT camera.
Methods:
[(18)F]fluorodeoxyglucose PET scans were acquired longitudinally over 3 months in three drug-naïve parkinsonian and three healthy control cynomolgus macaques. Group difference and test-retest stability in network activity and regional glucose metabolism were evaluated graphically, using all brain images from these macaques.
Results:
Comparing the parkinsonian macaques with the controls, network activity was elevated and remained stable over 3 months. Normalized glucose metabolism increased in putamen/globus pallidus and sensorimotor regions but decreased in posterior parietal cortices.
Conclusions:
Parkinsonism-related network activity can be reliably quantified in different macaques with a clinical positron emission tomography/CT scanner and is reproducible over a period typically employed in preclinical intervention studies. This measure can be a useful biomarker of disease process or drug effects in primate models of Parkinson's disease.
