Figure 1.

(A) Coronal [¹²³I]FP-CIT images of rat heads after pre-treatment with vehicle (0.9% saline), 5 mg/kg L-DOPA and 10 mg/kg L-DOPA. The reduction in striatal DAT binding after both L-DOPA doses is clearly visible. All images show V₃” values; it is understood, that the calculation of V₃” is only valid for regions of specific radioligand binding such as the rat striatum. Calculations were performed using MATLAB (version 4.2c or version 6, The MathWorks Inc., Novi, USA). (B) Striatal equilibrium ratios (V₃”) after vehicle, 5 mg/kg L-DOPA and after 10 mg/kg L-DOPA. Rendered are means and standard deviations of the means. The circles represent the individual animals. For significant between-group differences the respective p values are given (two-tailed independent t test, α = 0.0167 after Bonferroni correction).