Dynamic membrane studies in individuals at risk for Huntington's disease

Lymphocyte plasma membrane dynamics were studied by energy-transfer polarization in twenty-three neurologically normal individuals at-risk for Huntington's disease (HD). The results were compared to 10 normal controls and 10 known HD patients. The normal and HD subjects segregated into two distinct groups. The at-risk group had findings distributed along a continuum with values similar to known HD patients or to normal controls. These findings suggest that further studies of membrane dynamics will contribute to understanding the molecular defect in HD and to the development of a potential molecular marker.