| Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease of nervous system, which is mainly characterized by a progressive degeneration and necrosis of dopaminergic (DAergic) neurons in substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc), as well as the decrease of dopamine (DA) content in striatum. Its'clinical feature is rest tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia and postural instability. The incidence increases also when the age increases, and approximately 3% of individuals over the age of 65 years have PD, so it has a serious effect on the older health. Since James Parkinson described it in 1817, people studied hard constantly. Now the cause of PD is unknown and the symptomatic treatment is the major therapeutic tool. There is no treatment that prevents or arrests the disease process, so exploring a neuroprotective drug is important.Epidemiological studies show that it is an inverse association between PD and smoking: the PD incidence in smoker was lower than in non-smoker. This findings suggest that tobacco may have a neuroprotective effect, and people pay more attention to nicotine because nicotine is a major component in tobacco. Many studies have showed that nicotine can protect dopaminergic neuron, but the mechanism is obscure yet. In this study, the protective effect of nicotine on DAergic neuron in SN was investigated by the PD model mice treated with 1-methyl-4-phenyl- 1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyri-dine (MPTP). Meanwhile, the molecular mechanism of nicotine was also studied.
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