Aim. Parkinson’s disease is often accompanied by gastrointestinal symptoms, especially constipation. Microscopic studies of the enteric nervous system and enteric neuropathy have often been performed by immunostaining in the myenteric plexa. The aim of the present study was to examine whether pathologic changes could be identified by conventional hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and could also be seen in the submucosal plexa. Materials and Methods. In 20 deceased cases (11 male/9 female) of Parkinson’s disease, the intestinal tract was investigated for potential neuroganglionic disease. Ten cases (7 male/3 female) of non-Parkinson, intestinally asymptomatic individuals were used as controls. Specimens from the jejunum and colon were sampled. The material was treated with standard histopathological procedures, i.e., fixed in formaldehyde solution, dehydrated and embedded in paraffin, sectioned at 5 μm thickness, and stained with H&E and immunostaining for α-synuclein. Results. In 15 cases (7 male/8 female) of Parkinson’s disease, atrophic/pycnotic nerve plexus cells were present, i.e., signs of ganglionic degeneration in the submucosal and/or myenteric plexa, mostly identified in both loci, by H&E staining. In some cases, the degenerative signs were mild, however, corroborated by findings of α-synuclein deposits in the ganglion cells. The remaining 5 cases showed no signs of degeneration in the H&E staining, but immunostaining revealed minimal α-synuclein deposits in 3 cases. None of the controls showed any ganglionic degeneration/α-synuclein deposits. Conclusion. It seems possible to identify a morphologic intestinal disease substrate in Parkinson’s disease by H&E staining, showing ganglion cell pycnosis and degeneration in both plexa. This finding may indicate a potential to diagnose enteric neuropathy in highly accessible sites.

中文翻译：

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在帕金森病中观察到萎缩的肌间和黏膜下神经元。

瞄准。帕金森病常伴有胃肠道症状，尤其是便秘。肠神经系统和肠神经病变的显微镜研究通常通过在肌间丛中进行免疫染色来进行。本研究的目的是检查病理变化是否可以通过常规苏木精和伊红 (H&E) 染色来识别，也可以在黏膜下丛中观察到。材料和方法. 在 20 例帕金森病死者（11 名男性/9 名女性）中，对肠道进行了潜在的神经节疾病检查。10 例（7 男/3 女）非帕金森、肠道无症状个体用作对照。对来自空肠和结肠的样本进行取样。用标准的组织病理学程序处理该材料，即，固定在甲醛溶液中，脱水并包埋在石蜡中，切片为 5  μ m 厚，并用 H&E 染色和α-突触核蛋白免疫染色。结果. 在 15 例帕金森病病例（7 男/8 女）中，存在萎缩/固缩神经丛细胞，即通过 H&E 染色，在黏膜下层和/或肌间丛中的神经节变性迹象，主要在两个基因座中发现。在某些情况下，退行性征兆是轻微的，然而，神经节细胞中α-突触核蛋白沉积的发现证实了这一点。其余 5 例在 H&E 染色中未显示退化迹象，但免疫染色显示3 例中的α-突触核蛋白沉积物极少。没有一个对照显示任何神经节变性/α-突触核蛋白沉积。结论. 似乎可以通过 H&E 染色鉴定帕金森病中的形态学肠道疾病底物，显示两个丛中的神经节细胞固缩和变性。这一发现可能表明在高度可及的部位诊断肠神经病的潜力。