Expression Profiling of Rectal Biopsies Suggests Altered Enteric Neuropathological Traits in Parkinson's Disease Patients

Still little is known about the nature of the gastrointestinal pathological alterations occurring in Parkinson's disease (PD). Here, we used multiplexed mRNA profiling to measure the expression of a panel of 770 genes related to neuropathological processes in deep submucosal rectal biopsies of PD patients and healthy controls. Altered enteric neuropathological traits based on the expression of 22 genes related to neuroglial and mitochondrial functions, vesicle trafficking and inflammation was observed in 9 out 12 PD patients in comparison to healthy controls. These results provide new evidences that intestinal neuropathological alterations may occur in a large proportion of PD patients.