Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T02:10:15.731Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Substantia Nigra and Parkinson's Disease: A Brief History of Their Long and Intimate Relationship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2014

Martin Parent  and
André Parent
Martin Parent
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Laval University School of Medicine, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
André Parent*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Laval University School of Medicine, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
*
Centre de Recherche Université Laval Robert-Giffard, 2160, Chemin de la Canardière, Beauport, Québec, G1J 2G3, Canada
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The substantia nigra was discovered in 1786 by Félix Vicq d'Azyr, but it took more than a century before Paul Blocq and Georges Marinesco alluded to a possible link between this structure and Parkinson's disease. The insight came from the study of a tuberculosis patient admitted in Charcot's neurology ward at la Salpêtrière because he was suffering from unilateral parkinsonian tremor. At autopsy, Blocq and Marinesco discovered an encapsulated tumor confined to the substantia nigra, contralateral to the affected side, and concluded that tremor in that particular case resulted from a midbrain lesion. This pioneering work, published in 1893, led Edouard Brissaud to formulate, in 1895, the hypothesis that the substantia nigra is the major pathological site in Parkinson's disease. Brissaud's hypothesis was validated in 1919 by Constantin Trétiakoff in a remarkable thesis summarizing a post-mortem study of the substantia nigra conducted in Marinesco's laboratory. Despite highly convincing evidence of nigral cell losses in idiopathic and post-encephalitic Parkinsonism, Trétiakoff's work raised considerable doubts among his colleagues, who believed that the striatum and pallidum were the preferential targets of parkinsonian degeneration. Trétiakoff's results were nevertheless confirmed by detailed neuropathological studies undertaken in the 1930s and by the discovery, in the 1960s, of the dopaminergic nature of the nigrostriatal neurons that degenerate in Parkinson's disease. These findings have strengthened the link between the substantia nigra and Parkinson's disease, but modern research has uncovered the multifaceted nature of this neurodegenerative disorder by identifying other brain structures and chemospecifc systems involved in its pathogenesis.

Type
Historical Review
Information
Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences , Volume 37 , Issue 3 , May 2010 , pp. 313 - 319
Copyright
Copyright © The Canadian Journal of Neurological 2010

References

1. Parkinson, J. An essay on the shaking palsy. London: Sherwood, Neely and Jones; 1817.Google Scholar
2. Sœmmerring, ST. De basi encephali et originibus nervorum cranio egredientium libre quinque. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck Widow; 1778.Google Scholar
3. Sœmmerring, ST. De basi encephali et originibus nervorum cranio egredientium libre quinque. In: Ludwig, CF, editor. Scriptores neurologici minores selecti sive opera minora ad anatomiam physiologiam et pathologiam nervorum spectantia, vol. 2. Leipzig: Junius; 1792. p. 1–112.Google Scholar
4. Sano, T. Beitrag zur vergleichenden Anatomie der Substantia nigra, des Corpus Luysii und der Zona incerta. Mschr Psychiat Neurol. 1910; 27: 110–27.Google Scholar
5. Faull, RLM, Taylor, DW, Carman, JB. Sœmmerring and the substantia nigra. Med Hist. 1968; 12: 297–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6. Parent, A. Félix Vicq d’Azyr: anatomy, medicine and revolution. Can J Neurol Sci. 2007; 34: 30–7.Google Scholar
7. Vicq d’Azyr, F. Traité d’anatomie et de physiologie avec des planches coloriées représentant au naturel les divers organes de l’homme et des animaux. Paris: Didot l’Aîné; 1786.Google Scholar
8. Parent, A, Parent, M, Leroux-Hugon, V. Jules Bernard Luys: a singular figure of 19th century neurology. Can J Neurol Sci. 2002; 29: 282–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9. Luys, JB. Recherches sur le système cérébro-spinal, sa structure, ses fonctions et ses maladies. Paris: Baillière; 1865.Google Scholar
10. Mingazzini, G. Sulla fine struttura della Substantia nigra Sömmeringii. Reale Academia dei Lincei (Roma). 1888; 5: 36–40.Google Scholar
11. Mirto, D. Sulla fina anatomia delle regioni peduncolare e subthalamica nell’ uomo. Rivista di Patologia nervosa e mentale (Firenze). 1896; 1: 57–60.Google Scholar
12. Ramón y Cajal, S. Textura del sistema nervioso del hombre y de los vertebrados (3 vols). Zaragoza: Gobierno de Aragón; 1899. [French trans. by Azoulay, L. Histologie du système nerveux de l’homme et des vertébrés (2 vols). Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigationes Scientificas; 1909, 1911].Google Scholar
13. Charcot, JM, Vulpian, A. La paralysie agitante. Gaz Hebdom Med Chir. 1861; 8: 765-8, 816–23.Google Scholar
14. Charcot, JM. De la paralysie agitante (leçon 5). Œuvres complètes. Progrès Médical (Paris). 1869; 1: 161–88.Google Scholar
15. Ordenstein, L. Sur la paralysie agitante et la sclérose en plaques généralisée. Paris: Delahaye; 1868.Google Scholar
16. Goetz, CG. Charcot on Parkinson’s disease. Mov Dis. 1986; 1: 27–32.Google Scholar
17. Lehmann, HC, Hartung, HP, Kieseier, BC. Leopold Ordenstein: on paralysis agitans and multiple sclerosis. 2007; 13: 1195–9.Google Scholar
18. Sourkes, TL. ‘Rational hope’ in the early treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Can J Physiol Pharmacol. 1999; 77: 375–82.Google Scholar
19. Blocq, P, Marinesco, G. Sur les lésions de la pathogénie de l’épilepsie essentielle. Sem Med. 1892; 12: 445–6.Google Scholar
20. Blocq, P, Marinesco, G. Sur un cas de tremblement parkinsonien hémiplégique symptomatique d’une tumeur du pédoncule cérébral. C R Soc Biol. 1893; 5: 105–11.Google Scholar
21. Brissaud, E. Nature et pathogénie de la maladie de Parkinson. In: Meige, H, editor. Leçon sur les maladies nerveuses (Salpětrière, 1893-1894). Vol. 1, leçon 23. Paris: Masson; 1895. p. 488–501.Google Scholar
22. Lees, AJ, Selikhova, M, Andrade, LA, Duyckaerts, C. The black stuff and Konstantin Nicolaevich Tretiakoff. Mov Dis. 2008; 23: 777–83.Google Scholar
23. von Economo, C. Encephalitis lethargica. Wiener klinische Wochenschrift. 1917; 30: 581–5.Google Scholar
24. Trétiakoff, C. Contribution à l’étude de l’anatomie pathologique du locus niger de Sœmmering avec quelques déductions relatives à la pathogénie des troubles du tonus musculaire et de la maladie de Parkinson. Paris: Jouve; 1919.Google Scholar
25. Lewy, FH. Paralysis agitans. I. Pathologische Anatomy. In: Lewandowsky, M, editor. Handbuch der Neurologie, Vol. III, spez Neurol II. Berlin: Springer; 1912. p. 920–33.Google Scholar
26. Marinesco, G, Trétiakoff, C. Étude histopathologique des centres nerveux dans trois cas de maladie de Friedreich. Rev Neurol (Paris). 1920; 27: 113–31.Google Scholar
27. Lhermitte, J, Cornil, L. Recherches anatomiques sur la maladie de Parkinson. Rev Neurol (Paris). 1921; 28: 587–92.Google Scholar
28. Foix, C, Nicolesco, J. Anatomie cérébrale. Les noyaux gris centraux et la région mésencéphalo-sous-optique; suivi d’un appendice sur l’anatomie pathologique de la maladie de Parkinson. Paris: Masson; 1925.Google Scholar
29. Hassler, R. Zur Pathologie der Paralysis agitans und des postenzephalitischen Parkinsonismus. J Psychol Neurol. 1938; 48: 387–476.Google Scholar
30. Carlsson, A. Treatment of Parkinson’s with L-DOPA. The early discovery phase, and a comment on current problems. J Neural Transm. 2002; 109: 777–87.Google Scholar
31. Hornykiewicz, O. Basic research on dopamine in Parkinson’s disease and the discovery of the nigrostriatal dopamine pathway: the view of an eyewitness. Neurodegenerative Dis. 2008; 5: 114–7.Google Scholar
32. Poirier, LJ, Sourkes, TL. Influence of the substantia nigra on the catecholamine content of the striatum. Brain. 1965; 88: 181–92.Google Scholar
33. Benabid, AL, Chabardes, S, Mitrofanis, L, Polack, P. Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Lancet Neurol. 2009; 8: 67–81.Google Scholar
34. Parent, M, Parent, A. Relationship between axonal collateralization and neuronal degeneration in basal ganglia. J Neural Transm. 2006; 70: 85–8.Google Scholar
35. Whitehouse, PJ, Hedreen, JC, White, CL 3rd, Price, DL. Basal forebrain neurons in the dementia of Parkinson disease. Ann Neurol. 1983; 13: 243–8.Google Scholar