Affiliations: Department of Anatomy, Indiana University School of Medicine, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130 (U.S.A.) | Department of Psychology and Program of Neurosciences, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130 (U.S.A.)
Note: [] Correspondence: F.C. Zhou, Department of Anatomy, Indiana University School of Medicine, 635 Barnhill Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46202, U.S.A. Fax: (1)(317)274-3318.
Abstract: The present experiment was conducted to see whether nimodipine, a calcium channel blocker with the potential to protect vulnerable neurons, could improve the survival rate of striatal grafts under suboptimal conditions. The drug markedly improved graft viability of rats with near-term (E21) striatal implants. Untreated rats showed no surviving neurons while all treated rats showed surviving grafts rich in neuron. It did not affect the survival of striatal grafts from E14/15 donors into the striatum, in which the high rates of survival are normally obtained.
