NORMAL CAG AND CCG REPEATS IN THE HUNTINGTONS-DISEASE GENES OF PARKINSONS-DISEASE PATIENTS

The clinical features of Parkinson's disease, particularly rigidity an d bradykinesia and occasionally tremor, are seen in juvenile-onset Hun tington's disease, Therefore, the CAG and CCG; repeats in the Huntingt on's disease gene were investigated in 45 Parkinson's disease patients and compared to 40 control individuals, All of the Parkinson's diseas e chromosomes fell within the normal size ranges, In addition, the dis tributions of the two repeats in the Parkinson's disease patients did not differ significantly from those of the control population, Therefo re, abnormalities of these trinucleotide repeats in the Huntington's d isease gene are not likely to contribute to the pathogenesis of Parkin son's disease. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.