Postmortem studies in Parkinson's disease

No animal model to date perfectly replicates Parkinson's disease (PD) etiopathogenesis, and the anatomical organization of the nigrostriatal system differs considerably between species. Human postmortem material therefore remains the gold standard for both formulating hypotheses for subsequent testing in in vitro and in vivo PD models and verifying hypotheses derived from experimental PD models with regard to their validity in the human disease. This article focuses on recent and relevant fields in which human postmortem work has generated significant impact in our understanding of PD. These fields include Lewy body formation, regional vulnerability of dopaminergic neurons, oxidative/nitrative cellular stress, inflammation, apoptosis, infectious and environmental agents, and nondopaminergic lesions.