The expression of ectopic olfactory receptors (ORs) in melanized cells, such as the human brain nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons and skin melanocytes, is here pointed out. ORs are recognized to regulate skin melanogenesis, whereas OR expression in the dopaminergic neurons, characterized by accumulation of pigment neuromelanin, is downregulated in Parkinson's disease. Furthermore, the correlat...

Cell specificity of gene expression analysis is essential to avoid tissue sample related artifacts, in particular when the relative number of target cells present in the compared tissues varies dramatically, e.g., when comparing dopamine neurons in midbrain tissues from control subjects with those from Parkinson's disease (PD) cases. Here, we describe a detailed protocol that combines contact-f...

Parkinson's disease arises from genetic and possibly neurotoxic causes that produce massive cell death of the neuromelanin-containing dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra. Loss of these neurons is essential for the diagnostic parkinsonian features. Although many genetic mutations have been suggested as causes or risk factors for Parkinson's disease, the low penetrance of some mutations ...