Characterization of Lewy body pathology in 12- and 16-year-old intrastriatal mesencephalic grafts surviving in a patient with Parkinson's disease.
Author
Summary, in English
We previously reported the occurrence of Lewy bodies in grafted human fetal mesencephalic neurons in two patients with Parkinson's disease. Here, we have used immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy to characterize the development of Lewy bodies in one of these cases. This patient was operated in putamen on both sides at 12 or 16 years before death, respectively. We demonstrate that 2% of the 12-year-old and 5% of the 16-year-old grafted, presumed dopaminergic neurons contained Lewy bodies immunoreactive for alpha-synuclein. Based on morphological analysis, two forms of alpha-synuclein-positive aggregates were distinguished in the grafts, the first a classical and compact Lewy body, the other a loose meshwork aggregate. Lewy bodies in the grafts stained positively for ubiquitin and thioflavin-S, and contained characteristic alpha-synuclein immunoreactive electron dense fibrillar structures on electron microscopy. Our data indicate that Lewy bodies develop gradually in transplanted dopaminergic neurons in a fashion similar to that in dopaminergic neurons in the host substantia nigra. (c) 2010 Movement Disorder Society.
Department/s
Publishing year
2010
Language
English
Pages
1091-1096
Publication/Series
Movement Disorders
Volume
25
Issue
8
Links
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Topic
- Neurology
Keywords
- neural transplantation
- transmissible neurological disease
- Lewy body
- alpha-synuclein
- protein aggregation
Status
Published
Research group
- Neural Plasticity and Repair
- Neurobiology
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0885-3185