Gene expression profiling of resistant and vulnerable motor neuron subtypes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

A consistent clinical feature of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the sparing of eye movements. Pathological studies have confirmed that there is relative sparing of the cranial motor nuclei of the oculomotor, trochlear and abducens nerves, although pathological changes resembling those seen in anterior horn cells are present to a lesser degree. The aim of the present study is to combine LCM and microarray analysis to study the differences between motor neurons that are selectively resistant (oculomotor neurons) and those that are vulnerable (lumbar spinal motor neurons) to the disease process in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. We used microarray analysis to determine the differences in gene expression between oculomotor and lumbar spinal motor neurons, isolated by laser capture microdissection from the midbrain and spinal cord of neurologically normal human controls.