Gene expression changes in corticostriatal neurons of Huntington's Disease transgenic mice and postmortem human brains

Transcriptional dysregulation occurs in Huntington's Disease (HD). It affects striatal vulnerable neurons and neurons that are resistant against neurodegeneration (Zucker et al. 2005). The most affected brain region in HD besides the striatum is the cortex. Searching for causes that explain the selective neurodegeneration, we studied deep layer cortical neurons projecting to the striatum, which we isolated by Laser Capture Microdissection from sections of R6/2 transgenic mice and postmortem human HD brain. We have examined in detail both the mRNAs showing enrichment in the deep layer cortical cells and mRNAs sho…