Using global team science to identify genetic parkinson's disease worldwide.

No abstract available

The influence of electrical stimulation of vagus nerve on elemental composition of dopamine related brain structures in rats

Recent studies of Parkinson s disease indicate that dorsal motor nucleus of nerve vagus is one of the earliest brain areas affected by alpha synuclein and Lewy bodies pathology. The influence of electrical stimulation of vagus nerve on elemental composition of dopamine related brain structures in rats is investigated. Synchrotron radiation based X ray fluorescence was applied to the elemental micro imaging and quantification in thin tissue sections. It was found that elements such as P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Fe, Cu, Zn, Se, Br and Rb are present in motor cortex, corpus striatum, nucleus accumbens, substantia nigra, ventral tectal area, and dorsal motor nucleus of vagus. The topographic analysis shows that macro elements like P, S, Cl and K are highly concentrated within the fiber bundles of corpus striatum. In contrast the levels of trace elements like Fe and Zn are the lowest in these structures. It was found that statistically significant differences between the animals with electrical stimulation of vagus nerve and the control are observed in the left side of corpus striatum for P p 0.04 , S p 0.02 , Cl p 0.05 , K p 0.02 , Fe p 0.04 and Zn p 0.02 . The mass fractions of these elements are increased in the group for which the electrical stimulation of vagus nerve was performed. Moreover, the contents of Ca p 0.02 , Zn p 0.07 and Rb p 0.04 in substantia nigra of right hemisphere are found to be significantly lower in the group with stimulation of vagus nerve than in the control rat

Application of synchrotron radiation for elemental microanalysis of human central nervous System tissue

The pathogenesis of two neurodegenerative diseases i.e. Parkinson's Disease (PD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are still not known. It is supposed that disturbance of metal ions homeostasis may promote degeneration and atrophy of neurones. As a preliminary study. the quantitative and topographic elemental analysis of selected parts of human brain and spinal cord was performed using synchrotron microbeam-X ray fluorescence ($\mu$-SXRF) technique. The samples were taken during the autopsy from patients with PD, ALS and from patients died due to non-neurological conditions events. X-ray fluorescence imaging showed that increased concentration of selected elements are observed in neurons perikarial parts in compare with surrounding area. Moreover, comparable analysis showed significant differences in accumulation of selected elements between the pathological and control cases. The investigations indicate that micro-beam of synchrotron radiation can be satisfactory applied for analysis of central nervous System tissue providing useful information about distribution and contents of elements at the single cell level