title: Study of Cu chemical state inside single neurons from Parkinson's disease and control substantia nigra using the micro-XANES technique.
abstract: Parkinson's disease (PD) is referred to as idiopathic disorder, which means that its causes have not been found yet. However, a few processes such as oxidative stress, protein aggregation and mitochondrial dysfunction are suspected to lead to the atrophy and death of substantia nigra (SN) neurons in case of this neurodegenerative disorder. Cu is a trace element whose role in the pathogenesis of PD is widely discussed. The investigation of Cu oxidation state inside single nerve cells from SN of PD and control cases may shed some new light on the role of this element in PD. The differences in Cu chemical state were investigated with the use of X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy. The least-square fitting method was applied for the analysis of XANES spectra. The comparison of the positions of white line, multiple scattering and pre-edge peak maximum at the energy scale did not reveal the existence of differences in Cu chemical state between PD and control samples. However, it was found that most of the Cu inside SN neurons occurs in tetrahedral environment and probably as Cu(II).
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Nuclear Physics, Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science, AGH-University of Science and Technology, Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Krakow, Poland. jchwiej@novell.ftj.agh.edu.pl
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chwiej
authors.forename: Dariusz
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Adamek
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Szczerbowska-Boruchowska
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Krygowska-Wajs
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bohic
authors.forename: Marek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lankosz