Traumatic brain injury 'may lead to Parkinson's'RSS Feed

Traumatic brain injury could increase the risk of Parkinson's disease, scientists have found.

In a University of California Los Angeles study, researchers saw a 15 per cent decrease in nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons after a traumatic brain injury.

Levels of the neurons continued to decline in the weeks after the injury, leading to a 30 per cent loss 26 weeks later, according to the study which was carried out on mice.

A lack of these neurons may lead to the motor issues found in Parkinson's patients including rigidity, postural tremor and akinesia.

Furthermore, when the scientists combined the traumatic brain injury with certain pesticides already known to be a Parkinson's risk factor, the neuron loss reached 30 per cent much faster.

Meanwhile, a paper published in the Journal of Neuroscience Research revealed that lithium could dramatically prevent the brain injury seen in Parkinson's disease.

The element was found to significantly prevent the aggregation of toxic proteins and cell loss characteristic of the neurodegenerative condition.

Serious Law, award winning brain injury law firm

Posted by Paul Breen

 

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