Dysregulation of gene expression in the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine-lesioned mouse substantia nigra.

Parkinson's disease pathogenesis proceeds through several phases, culminating in the loss of dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra (SN). Although the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) model of oxidative SN injury is frequently used to study degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in mice and non-human primates, an understanding of the temporal sequence of molecular events from inhibition of mitochondrial complex 1 to neuronal cell death is limited. Here, microarray analysis and integrative data mining were used to uncover pathways implicated in the progression of changes in dopaminergic neurons after MPTP administration.

A 3.9-centimorgan-resolution human single-nucleotide polymorphism linkage map and screening set.

Recent advances in technologies for high-throughout single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based genotyping have improved efficiency and cost so that it is now becoming reasonable to consider the use of SNPs for genomewide linkage analysis. However, a suitable screening set of SNPs and a corresponding linkage map have yet to be described. The SNP maps described here fill this void and provide a resource for fast genome scanning for disease genes.

Extraction and amplification of DNA from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues.

Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue (PET) is an invaluable resource for retrospective molecular genetic studies, but the extraction of high-quality genomic DNA from the PET may be problematic. We report a simple method that significantly improves the ability to amplify DNA recovered from formalin-fixed PET. Based on the standard procedure of a commercially available DNA preparation kit, the QIAamp DNA mini kit or the HighPure DNA preparation kit, we developed this method by eliminating the xylene/ethanol extraction step and adding a heat-treatment step.