The Effects of Stress on Lewy Pathology in Dopamine Neurons

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a complex neurodegenerative disorder. Both genetic and non-genetic risk factors may contribute to the susceptibility to PD. But the pathological evidence for non-genetic regulation of PD susceptibility is still lacking. In the present study, we demonstrate that stress serves as a non-genetic risk factor to increase the formation of Lewy bodies and aggravate their pathological effect on midbrain dopamine neurons in mice.