0000000000757461
AUTHOR
Rob A.i. De Vos
Gastric α-synuclein immunoreactive inclusions in Meissner's and Auerbach's plexuses in cases staged for Parkinson's disease-related brain pathology
The progressive degenerative process associated with sporadic Parkinson's disease (sPD) is characterized by formation of alpha-synuclein-containing inclusion bodies in a few types of projection neurons in both the enteric and central nervous systems (ENS and CNS). In the brain, the process apparently begins in the brainstem (dorsal motor nucleus of the vagal nerve) and advances through susceptible regions of the basal mid-and forebrain until it reaches the cerebral cortex. Anatomically, all of the vulnerable brain regions are closely interconnected. Whether the pathological process begins in the brain or elsewhere in the nervous system, however, is still unknown. We therefore used immunocyt…
Stanley Fahn Lecture 2005: The staging procedure for the inclusion body pathology associated with sporadic Parkinson's disease reconsidered.
The synucleinopathy known as sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD) is a multisystem disorder that severely damages predisposed nerve cell types in circumscribed regions of the human nervous system. A recent staging procedure for the inclusion body pathology associated with PD proposes that, in the brain, the pathological process (formation of proteinaceous intraneuronal Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites) begins at two sites and continues in a topographically predictable sequence in six stages, during which components of the olfactory, autonomic, limbic, and somatomotor systems become progressively involved. In stages 1 to 2, the Lewy body pathology is confined to the medulla oblongata/pontine tegme…
Molecular Histochemistry of Nicotinic Receptors in Human Brain
Only a decade ago the existence and functional significance of central nervous nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) was still a subject of controversy. Today, the importance of this receptor class for signal transduction in human brain in normal and pathological conditions has become quite evident. nAChRs have turned out to be important pharmacological targets in disorders like Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (Arneric et al., 1994). One prerequisite to understand nAChR function is a detailed study of the cellular distribution of nAChR subtypes. In recent years several human-specific data have been made available. This paper attempts to show actual developments in this field, summarizing the e…