Oxidative stress in skin fibroblasts cultures from patients with Parkinson's disease

BMC Neurol. 2010 Oct 19:10:95. doi: 10.1186/1471-2377-10-95.

Abstract

Background: In the substantia nigra of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, increased lipid peroxidation, decreased activities of the mitochondrial complex I of the respiratory chain, catalase and glutathione-peroxidase, and decreased levels of reduced glutathione have been reported. These observations suggest that oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction play a role in the neurodegeneration in PD. We assessed enzymatic activities of respiratory chain and other enzymes involved in oxidative processes in skin fibroblasts cultures of patients with PD.

Methods: We studied respiratory chain enzyme activities, activities of total, Cu/Zn- and Mn-superoxide-dismutase, gluthatione-peroxidase and catalase, and coenzyme Q10 levels in skin fibroblasts cultures from 20 Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and 19 age- and sex- matched healthy controls.

Results: When compared with controls, PD patients showed significantly lower specific activities for complex V (both corrected by citrate synthase activity and protein concentrations). Oxidized, reduced and total coenzyme Q10 levels (both corrected by citrate synthase and protein concentrations), and activities of total, Cu/Zn- and Mn-superoxide-dismutase, gluthatione-peroxidase and catalase, did not differ significantly between PD-patients and control groups. Values for enzyme activities in the PD group did not correlate with age at onset, duration, scores of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating scales and Hoehn-Yahr staging.

Conclusions: The main result of this study was the decreased activity of complex V in PD patients. This complex synthesizes ATP from ADP using an electrochemical gradient generated by complexes I-IV. These results suggest decreased energetic metabolism in fibroblasts of patients with PD.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cells, Cultured
  • Electron Transport / physiology
  • Female
  • Fibroblasts / enzymology*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Mitochondria / enzymology
  • Oxidative Stress / physiology*
  • Parkinson Disease / enzymology*
  • Skin / enzymology*