TY - JOUR T1 - Pathological lesions in colonic biopsies during Parkinson’s disease JF - Gut JO - Gut SP - 1741 LP - 1743 DO - 10.1136/gut.2008.162503 VL - 57 IS - 12 AU - T Lebouvier AU - T Chaumette AU - P Damier AU - E Coron AU - Y Touchefeu AU - S Vrignaud AU - P Naveilhan AU - J-P Galmiche AU - S Bruley des Varannes AU - P Derkinderen AU - M Neunlist Y1 - 2008/12/01 UR - http://gut.bmj.com/content/57/12/1741.abstract N2 - Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative condition that affects 1% of the population over 65 years of age. The two pathological hallmarks of PD are a loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SN) and the presence of cytoplasmic eosinophilic inclusions termed Lewy bodies (LBs), whose main component is phosphorylated α-synuclein.1 This degeneration of SN neurons leads to a dopamine deficiency responsible for the major motor symptoms. Nevertheless, it has become increasingly evident that PD is a multicentric neurodegenerative process that also affects neuronal structures outside the SN.2 In this context, various reports performed on surgical or autopsy specimens have shown that the enteric nervous system (ENS) is affected during PD.3 4 However, it is still a matter of debate whether these alterations occur early in the course of the disease. This is mainly due to a lack of accessibility to the ENS in the living patients. Therefore, demonstrating (1) the ability to study the ENS using routine colonic biopsies and (2) the presence of lesions characteristics … ER -