Rate of cell death in parkinsonism indicates active neuropathological process.
McGeer PL, Itagaki S, Akiyama H, McGeer EG.
Kinsmen Laboratory of Neurological Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
It has been hypothesized that idiopathic parkinsonism might be due to age-related attrition of dopamine neurons occurring long after an initial acute episode. We present evidence against this hypothesis, based on our finding of at least six times as many HLA-DR-positive microglia phagocytosing dopamine neurons in parkinsonian brains as in control brains. This difference indicates an active pathological process.
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PMID: 3239957 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]