effects of isradipine on induced-parkinson’s disease in rats

Background: parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease in developed countries. recent studies have showed that there is a relation between neuron loss in parkinson’s disease and l-type calcium channel activity in pars compacta of substantia nigra. therefore, it seems that calcium channel blockers can effect on this disease. objectives: in this study, weevaluate the protective and therapeutic effects of isradipine on experimental parkinson’s model in rats. materials and methods: in this experimental study, 63 rats were allocated randomly in seven group including: intact, control, shamoperated, lesion and lesion treated by 0.1, 0.2 or 0.4 mg/kg dosage of isradipine. l-type calcium channel blocker, isradipine was subcutaneously injected to treated rats in the doses of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.4 mg/kg/day, for four weeks, starting the day after a unilateral nigrostriatal 6-hydroxy dopamine (6-ohda) lesion. rotational tests with apomorphine and rigidity tests were conducted on all animal groups one week before the lesion experiments and four weeks after. results: administration of isradipine (0.1, 0.2 and 0.4 mg/kg/day for 4 weeks) decreased mean of rotation number and muscular rigidity score significantly compared with control group (p < 0.05). conclusions: this study showed that isradipine has a therapeutic effect in a dose dependent manner on parkinson’s disease in rats.