An immunohistochemical investigation of the human neostriatum in huntington's disease

The neostriatum of 7 autopsied patients with Huntington's disease (HD) was examined immunohistochemically using purified antibody against calcineurin, which may be present only in the medium-size spinous neurons of the mammalian striatum. This study revealed a marked loss of calcineurin-positive cells in the caudate nucleus and the putamen in all HD patients, compared with control subjects, and there was some variation among the HD patients. Four HD patients showed significantly lower density of calcineurin-positive cells in the caudate nucleus than in the putamen. The remaining calcineurin-positive cells in the caudate nucleus and the putamen had a mosaic-like pattern, demonstrating a subregional difference in distribution. This finding suggests that there are subregional as well as compartmental differences in the vulnerability of the calcineurin-positive cells in the striatum of patients with HD.