Figure 1.

Experimental design of in vivo rat studies. The effects of l-dopa treatment on immunohistochemical indices of angiogenesis (Experiment 1), and on the levels of VEGF protein (Experiment 2) were studied using two dosing regimens (‘high dose’, 25 mg/kg, and ‘low dose’, 6 mg/kg given twice daily in combination with 12 mg/kg benserazide). The effects of the VEGFR2 antagonist, vandetanib (30 mg/kg/day) on dyskinesia and angiogenesis were studied in Experiment 3. All treatments were performed on rats with unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine lesions. ELISA = enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; IHC = immunohistochemistry.