查看文章

Preferential loss of basal ganglia neurons and terminals occurs in Huntington's disease (HD). Terminals of preproen‐kephalin medium‐size spiny neurons are more vulnerable than terminals of preprotachykinin neurons, but the peptidergic neurons of origin have not yet been shown to die preferentially. We sought to determine, in the striatum, whether preproenkephalin neurons were lost to a greater extent than preprotachykinin neurons and to determine whether there were decreases in specific messenger RNA (mRNA) levels of preproenkephalin, preprotachykinin, and calbindin D28k. We found a grade‐related decrease in the number of preprotachykinin‐ and calbindin D28k—labeled neurons per measuring field in the caudate nucleus of patients with HD. Three measures of the neuronal level of preprotachykinin mRNA were all significantly reduced (6–65% of control values) in HD caudate nucleus. No decline …