Gene expression profiling of parkinsonian substantia nigra

Affymetrix HG-Focus array was used to determine a global gene expression profile of clinically and neuropathologically confirmed cases of sporadic Parkinson's disease compared to controls. Major alterations were detected in signal transduction, protein degradation, dopaminergic transmission/metabolism, energy pathways/glycolysis, cell adhesion/cytoskeleton, extracellular matrix components and cell cycle functional classes. Post-mortem human brains were obtained from moderately to severe parkinsonism individuals based on the Hoehn & Yahr criteria. All the subjects were negative for AD pathology according to Braak & Braak. The average age for PD and control is 76.6 and 77.8 years, respectively. The average postmortem delay for PD and control is 26.2 and 19.8 hours, respectively.