Cell death and apoptosis regulating proteins in Parkinson’s disease – a cautionary note (original) (raw)

Abstract

We studied the substantia nigra of three Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients and three age-matched individuals by in situ DNA-end labeling (ISEL) and immunohistochemistry for the apoptosis regulating proteins Bcl-2, Bax and Bcl-x on 50 consecutive sections per patient. No melanin-containing cell was identified with typical apoptotic changes in either patient or control substantia nigra. With prolonged reaction-time the terminal transferase-mediated DNA-end labeling revealed a signal in 2.0 ± 1.2% melanin-containing cells in PD compared to 1.3 ± 1.1% in control. This difference did nor reach statistical significance and no condensation or margination of the chromatin was evident. No significant changes of any of the apoptosis regulating proteins were apparent in PD substantia nigra. These findings do not support the hypothesis that apoptosis plays a central role in the pathogenesis of PD.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Friedrich-Wilhelms-University, Sigmund-Freud-Str. 25, D-53105 Bonn, Germany e-mail: wuellner@uni-bonn.de, Tel.: +49-228-287-5697, Fax: +49-228-287-5024, , , , , , DE
    U. Wüllner & T. Klockgether
  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Göttingen, von Siebold Str. 5, D-37075, Göttingen, Germany, , , , , , DE
    J. Kornhuber
  3. Department of Neurology, Eberhard-Karls-University, Hoppe-Seyler-Str. 3, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany, , , , , , DE
    M. Weller, J. B. Schulz & P.-A. Löschmann
  4. Department of Psychiatry, University of Würzburg, Füchsleinstr.15, D-97080 Würzburg, Germany, , , , , , DE
    P. Riederer

Authors

  1. U. Wüllner
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  2. J. Kornhuber
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  3. M. Weller
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  4. J. B. Schulz
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  5. P.-A. Löschmann
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  6. P. Riederer
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  7. T. Klockgether
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Received: 20 May 1998 / Accepted: 27 October 1998

Rights and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wüllner, U., Kornhuber, J., Weller, M. et al. Cell death and apoptosis regulating proteins in Parkinson’s disease – a cautionary note.Acta Neuropathol 97, 408–412 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s004010051005

Download citation