Ubiquitin gene expression in brain and spinal cord in motor neurone disease

A restriction fragment of the coding region of a human ubiquitin gene has been used in Northern analyses of RNA prepared from human motor cortex and anterior horn region of cervical spinal cord. The analyses show that there is a substantial increase (approximately two-fold) in the expression of a polyubiquitin gene in motor cortex and spinal cord from patients with motor neurone disease compared to these tissues from control cases. Polyubiquitin gene expression in other organisms is associated with physical or chemical cell stresses. The data indicate that the primary stresses which result in the generation of ubiquitinated filamentous inclusion bodies in neurones in motor neurone disease also result in increased transcription of a gene coding for a polyprotein of ubiquitin.