Cutaneous Alpha-Synuclein From Paraffin Embedded Autopsy Specimens in Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson disease (PD) is neurodegenerative disorder characterized by tremor, rigidity and bradykinesia and pathologically by the deposition of alpha-synuclein within different tissues. We, and others, have reported the detection of cutaneous alpha-synuclein in individuals with PD.

The goal of the present study was to detect alpha-synuclein deposition by immunohistochemical staining of skin samples in pathologically confirmed cases of PD.

Post-mortem skin biopsy samples from 11 individuals with PD, and 5 non-synucleinopathy control subjects were paraffin embedded and stained for total alpha-synuclein and protein gene product 9.5.

Alpha-synuclein deposition was greater in both scalp and abdominal skin biopsy PD samples compared to control samples in pilomotor nerves (P < 0.05), sudomotor nerves (P < 0.05) and vasomotor nerves (P < 0.05). Deposition of alpha-synuclein in scalp and abdominal tissue did not correlate with age, duration of PD, or severity of PD.

There is greater deposition of alpha-synuclein within pilomotor, sudomotor and vasomotor nerve fibers of paraffin embedded samples from autopsy confirmed cases of PD compared to control samples. However, assessment of alpha-synuclein deposition in post-mortem paraffin embedded tissue has many limitations and the utility of this technique in clinical and research studies is uncertain.