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. 2025 Aug;40(8):1735-1737.
doi: 10.1002/mds.30288. Epub 2025 Jul 7.

Trusting Your Gut When it Comes to the Origin of Parkinson's Disease

Per Borghammer  1   2 , Nathalie Van Den Berge  2   3 , Casper Skjærbæk  2 , Jacob Horsager  1   2
Affiliations

Trusting Your Gut When it Comes to the Origin of Parkinson's Disease

Per Borghammer et al. Mov Disord. 2025 Aug.
No abstract available

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Figures

FIG. 1
FIG. 1
Plots of 123 cases from the Brain Bank for Aging Research, divided into eight categories according to how many of 16 regions were Lewy‐type pathology (LTP)‐positive. The LTP in each region was assessed semi‐quantitatively and plotted as average (standard error of the mean). All body‐first (blue) cases were defined as those with more pathology in the sympathetic trunk and dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus than in the amygdala and olfactory bulb. Brain‐first cases (red) showed the opposite pattern. The final two categories (13–14 and 15–16 positive regions) are considered post‐diagnostic stages, the 11–12 positive category is mostly pre‐diagnostic, and the first five categories (1–10 regions positive) are pre‐diagnostic, since not a single case had an antemortem Parkinson's disease (PD) or dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) diagnosis. The earliest stages of LTP are clearly non‐random, arguing against hematogenous seeding of the brain. Early LTP is predominantly seen either in the sympathetic and/or parasympathetic system, compatible with an autonomic start, or in the amygdala and/or olfactory bulb, compatible with an olfactory‐ or amygdala‐first origin. ADR, adrenal gland; ESO, esophagus; HE, heart; SY, sympathetic trunk; DMV, dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus; LC, locus coeruleus; SN, substantia nigra; NBM, nucleus basalis of Meynert; AMY, amygdala; OB, olfactory bulb; TrE, transentorhinal cortex; CIN, cingulum; T, temporal; F, frontal; P, parietal. The figure is adapted from Andersen et al. (2025) published open access under Creative Commons Attribution v. 4.0 international license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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