Figure 1.

Effect of HD on behavioral impairments and on histological parameters induced by rotenone intoxication. (A,A1) Motor function was assessed using a Pole test. At 28 days, mice exhibited a significant motor dysfunction as indicated by an increase in “Time to turn” and “Total time” spent to descend to the floor following injection of rotenone compared with the Sham group. HD administration notably reduced “Total time” and “Time to turn”. (A) *** p < 0.001 vs. Sham; ** p < 0.01 vs. rotenone; (A1) *** p < 0.001 vs. Sham; ** p < 0.01 vs. rotenone. (B) At 28 days, using a Rotarod apparatus, mice exhibited a significant motor dysfunction as indicated by a decrease in time spent on the Rotarod. HD treatment blunted the motor dysfunction in mice. (B) ** p < 0.01 vs. Sham; * p < 0.05 vs. rotenone. (C) Catalepsy was evaluated according to the standard bar hanging procedure; this motor test showed that the HD treatment reduced behavioral impairment induced by rotenone. (C) *** p < 0.001 vs. Sham; *** p < 0.001 vs. rotenone. Values are the mean ± SEM of 10 mice for each group. Sham+HD and Sham+vehicle groups showed no evidence of degenerating cells in the SN (D,E), whereas degeneration of neuromelanin-pigmented cells was evident in the SN of the rotenone-treated animals (F). HD treatment restored the architecture compared to the control mice (G). The data are representative of at least three independent experiments and are expressed as the mean ± SEM of 5 mice for each group. (H) * p < 0.05 vs. Sham; * p < 0.05 vs. rotenone. Scale bar: 50 μm.