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SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE · MED

Ultrastructural diversity and subcellular organization of nigral Lewy pathology in Parkinson's disease.

Nat Commun · 2026-06-08

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-74083-zPMID: 42259820

Open accessresearch-article; Journal ArticleOriginal source ↗

Research overview

The text below is the source article’s original abstract under a verified reuse license. cc by

Lewy bodies, the defining pathological feature of Parkinson's disease, are intraneuronal inclusions enriched in aggregated alpha-synuclein (αSyn). We used correlative light and electron microscopy to selectively investigate phosphorylated αSyn (αSynpS129)-positive inclusions in the substantia nigra of end-stage postmortem Parkinson's disease brain. Here we show that somatic αSynpS129 inclusions in nigral dopaminergic neurons are consistently fibrillar, whereas the membranous-type inclusions are restricted to neuritic processes. These neuritic inclusions displayed marked ultrastructural heterogeneity, ranging from predominantly membranous to mixed membranous-fibrillar forms. The selective targeting of defined inclusions enabled detailed structural characterization of Lewy pathology, rather than quantitative or disease-stage comparisons. Our findings highlight clear ultrastructural differences between somatic and neuritic αSynpS129 pathology and demonstrate the structural complexity and heterogeneity of Lewy pathology in human Parkinson's disease brain.

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