The Research Of The Function Of Autophagy In Parkinson’s Disease Patients Fibroblasts

Objective1. To investigate the function of autophagy in PD patients fibroblasts.2. To explore the effects of rapamycin upon autophagy function of PD patients fibroblasts.Methods1. Punch skin biopsies were taken from fifteen PD patients. Control skins were obtained from sixteen healthy control subjects. Primary fibroblasts were cultured continuously.2.The expression of microtubule-associated protein1light chain3(LC-3) was detected by Western blot.3. Rapamycin was used to induce autophagy, and the expression of LC-3was detected by Western blot again.4. Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS13.0. We compared the variable by means of the Oneway ANOVA and q-test. A level of significance of p<0.05was used.Results1. The ratio of LC-3Ⅱ/LC-3Ⅰ was higher in PD patients’fibroblasts than in healthy control.2. When rapamycin was used to induce autophagy by the same time, the increase of the ratio of LC-3Ⅱ/LC-3Ⅰ was more obviously in PD patients fibroblasts, while the ratio of LC-3Ⅱ/LC-3Ⅰ was increased scarcely in the fibroblasts of healthy control.ConclusionsOur findings indicated that autophagy activity was higher in PD patients fibroblasts, and implicated that there existed more abnormal proteins or organelles in PD patients. When rapamycin was used, the increase of the ratio of LC-3Ⅱ/LC-3Ⅰ was more obviously in PD patients fibroblasts. This indicated that PD patients were more sensitive about rapamycin than healthy control. It appears that rapamycin maybe potential therapeutics for this disorder.