TY  - CONF
AU  - Kirilina, Evgeniya
AU  - Brueckner, Dennis Bjoern
AU  - Falkenberg, Gerald
AU  - Reinert, Tilo
AU  - Morawski, Markus
AU  - Jaeger, Carsten
AU  - Brammerloh, Malte
AU  - Crockford, Catherine
AU  - Wittig, Roman
AU  - Lipp, Ilona
AU  - Buettner, Felix
AU  - Weiskopf, Nikolaus
TI  - Lifespan Iron Accumulation in Dopaminergic Neurons: Understanding Dopaminergic Vulnerability in Parkinson's Disease
PB  - University College London
M1  - PUBDB-2024-06269
PY  - 2024
AB  - The transition metal iron is essential for cognitive function. However, dopaminergic neurons (DN) in the substantia nigra (SN) suffer from iron overload in age, increasing the risk for Parkinson’s disease (PD). Neuromelanin (NM) chelates iron, protecting DN against oxidative stress, but becomes toxic when oversaturated in age. Therefore, monitoring iron in DN is crucial for early PD diagnosis and understanding its pathophysiology. Quantitative MRI provides a non-invasive method to measure brain iron, but the contrast mechanisms have not been validated across the lifespan. This is challenging as young human post mortem samples are rare and rodent animal models are not informative due to the lack of NM. Herein, we studied brain iron accumulation across the primate lifespan. We measured cellular iron in DN using quantitative MRI, histology and X-ray fluorescence microscopy in unique animal model: post mortem brains of chimpanzees collected using an ethical pipeline. We demonstrate that the chimpanzee is a suitable animal model to study the aging of human DN. We show that NM accumulates iron with age leading to its increasing toxicity and that dopaminergic neurodegeneration starts in early adulthood.
T2  - Summer school on Cognitive NeuroImaging
CY  - 9 Sep 2024 - 11 Sep 2024, London (Germany)
Y2  - 9 Sep 2024 - 11 Sep 2024
M2  - London, Germany
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)24
UR  - https://bib-pubdb1.desy.de/record/615713
ER  -