RNAseq of human SNc and VTA midbrain dopamine neurons isolated from post mortem material of control subjects and Parkinson's Disease patients using laser capture microdisection.

Defining the transcriptional profiles of SNc and VTA dopamine neurons could reveal mechanisms underlying their differential susceptibilities in Parkinson’s disease. To conclusively identify genes stably enriched in either VTA or SNc dopamine neurons we conducted transcriptomic profiling across 18 human subjects and revealed novel genes in human that stably define dopamine neuron subtypes by random pooling algorithm. A total of 50 samples were analyzed. Each sample consists of approximately 50-120 laser-captured motor neurons from post-mortem human tissue. Samples are divided in 4 groups (Control SNc, n=26; Control VTA, n=17; PD SNc, n=5; PD VTA, n=4). For cases having more than 1 replicate per group, corresponding samples were averaged before analysis so that each Case have only 1 SNc and 1 VTA.