title: Lack of association between polymorphic microsatellites of the VMAT2 gene and Parkinson's disease in Japan.
abstract: The etiology of Parkinson's disease (PD) remains unclear; however, generation of reactive oxygen species during oxidation of dopamine (DA) could be one of the factors leading to selective loss of nigral dopaminergic neurons in PD. Vesicular monoamine transporter type 2 (VMAT2) proteins in nerve terminals uptake and partition DA from neuronal cytoplasm into synaptic vesicles. Therefore, alterations of VMAT2 function may cause cytoplasmic accumulation of free DA, toxic to dopaminergic neurons. Upstream of a putative promoter region of the VMAT2 gene, there exist polymorphic sequences consisting of two microsatellites, (CA)n and (GA)n. We performed a case-control study of this polymorphic region to determine whether the VMAT2 gene is related to PD. We found six genotypes; however, there was no significant difference in the allele frequencies between patients with PD and control subjects. Our data suggest that the polymorphic region of the VMAT2 gene studied here is not closely related to PD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Nara 634-8522, Japan. neurolgy@yahoo.co.jp
authors.forename: Shingo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kariya
authors.forename: Makito
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hirano
authors.forename: Nobuyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Yoshiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Furiya
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ueno
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000483:Alleles; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics*; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics*; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D050492:Vesicular Biogenic Amine Transport Proteins; D050493:Vesicular Monoamine Transport Proteins
chemical_list: D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins; C493452:SLC18A2 protein, human; D050492:Vesicular Biogenic Amine Transport Proteins; D050493:Vesicular Monoamine Transport Proteins; D004247:DNA