The absence of reactive astrocytosis is indicative of a unique inflammatory process in Parkinson's disease
Section snippets
Tissue sources
Brain samples of the SN and putamen from PD (n=5) and control subjects (n=5) were obtained from the Netherlands Brain Bank (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). Control samples were obtained among patients without previous neurological disease before death and no pathological changes in sections of the SNpc. The post mortem interval from the time of death until fixation was less than 24 h in all cases (Table 1). The samples were obtained from brains fixed in formalin and embedded in paraffin.
The
Results
The normal and PD cases did not differ significantly with respect to age and brain weight (Table 1). Likewise, the post mortem fixation delay and the pH values of cerebrospinal fluid sampled post mortem did not display significant differences (Table 1), indicating that the material employed for the study was of equal quality with respect to the potential risk of post mortem autolysis of the tissue.
Discussion
Our results show that astrocytes, in contrast to microglial cells, did not display signs of inflammation in the chronic settings of degenerating DA neurons in the SN of patients clinically and pathologically diagnosed with PD. MTs I and II were not up-regulated in astrocytes in PD cases in terms of cellular distribution or increased labelling intensity.
Conclusion
In PD, the SN harbours numerous cells of the myelo-monocytic lineage. Judging from the morphology of these cells, they represent residing, activated microglia rather than invading monocytes or macrophages. The microgliosis is not accompanied by activation of GFAP-containing astrocytes in PD autopsies. Supporting this observation, MTs I and II are not up-regulated in astrocytes. In the putamen, we did not find any inflammatory changes such as microgliosis or reactive astrocytosis. The absence of
Acknowledgements
The excellent technical assistance of Birgit Risto is greatly appreciated. This work was supported by The Mette and Mogens Mogensens Fund.
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