Parkinson's Disease Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Parkinson's Disease, including details on symptoms, treatment, genetics, medication.

Dendritic degeneration in neostriatal medium spiny neurons in Parkinson disease.

Zaja-Milatovic S, Milatovic D, Schantz AM, Zhang J, Montine KS, Samii A, Deutch AY, Montine TJ

Department of Pathology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA 98104, USA.

Dysfunction of neostriatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs) is hypothesized to underlie late-stage motor complications of Parkinson disease (PD). The authors demonstrate shortened dendrite length of MSNs that was similar in four regions of neostriatum in late-stage PD. In contrast, MSN dendrite spine degeneration was unevenly distributed with the greatest loss in caudal putamen. The authors propose that these structural changes in MSN may contribute to late-stage motor complications of PD.

Published 8 February 2005 in Neurology, 64(3): 545-7.
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