Chapter category: Neurodegenerative Disease
Do Familial Parkinson’s Disease Genes Share a Common Pathway Involved in the Nigral Degeneration?
Chapter authors:
Parkinson’ s disease (PD) is the most common progressive movement disorders characterized by resting tremor, cogwheel rigidity, bradykineasi, and impaired postural reflexes with a prevalence of approximately 200/100,0000 among white populations1 and 100/100,000 in Japanese.2 Considering the age at onset, this disease affects 1 to 2 percent of persons older than 65 years of age. The exact cause of this disease has been unclear, however, there has been growing evidence that mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, and genetic factors contribute the pathogenesis of PD. Moreover, progress in understanding the pathogenesis of this disease has been done after the identification of causative genes or loci for familial PD (FPD). Therefore, there is no question about the genetic influence on the development for PD. Studies on the frequency of PD among the first relatives of index patients with PD was reported as twice and three times than that in the control population.3-5 Furthermore, the role of genetic factors in FPD is supported by the high concordance in twins using PET scans.6-8 Thus, it is now clear that clinically defined PD represents a heterogeneous group of disorders that encompasses a small proportion of individuals with inherited disease and a larger population with seemingly sporadic disease.
