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Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common degenerative neurologic disorder, which is pathologically characterized by a selective degeneration of dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta, and the presence of characteristic eosinophilic inclusions, known as Lewy-bodies in affected brain areas¹. The cause of PD is unknown but, in recent years, genetic factors have been implicated in the aetiology of the disease². Firstly, clinico-genetic, epidemiologic and twin studies revealed inheritable effects³ and questioned earlier studies which had denied such influences⁴. Secondly, several family studies suggested autosomal-dominant inheritance of syndromes which, to variable degrees, resembled sporadic PD clinically⁵ and in some cases also neuropathologically^6,7. Recently, a disease locus has been mapped to chromosome 4q21–22 in a large Mediterranean pedigree⁸, in which disease expression is …