Examples of rodent models used to study Parkinson's disease genes
| Genetic model | Description | PD phenotype | Reference | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Motor deficits | DA neuron degeneration | α-Synuclein pathology | |||
| α-Synuclein (PARK1, PARK4) | Overexpression of WT α-synuclein using PDGF-β promoter | Yes | Subtle defects | Yes | Masliah et al. (2000) |
| Expression of A53T mutant α-synuclein using mouse prion promoter | Yes (lethal) | No | Yes | Giasson et al. (2002); Lee et al. (2002) | |
| Expression of A30P mutant α-synuclein using Prp promoter | Yes (progressive) | No | Atypical | Gomez-Isla et al. (2003) | |
| Lentivirus injection of WT or A30P (rat) | No | Yes | Yes | Lo Bianco et al. (2002) | |
| Parkin (PARK2) | Knock-out | Subtle | No | No | Goldberg et al. (2003); Itier et al. (2003) |
| Expression of mutant parkin-Q311X using dopamine transporter promoter in a bacterial artificial chromosome | Yes (progressive) | Yes (selective and progressive) | Atypical | Lu et al. (2009) | |
| DJ-1 (PARK7) | Knock-out | Yes | Subtle defects | No | Goldberg et al. (2005); Chen et al. (2005) |
| PINK1 (PARK6) | Knock-out | Yes | Subtle defects | No | Kitada et al. (2007) |
| Engrailed (En1 +/−) | Knock-out | Yes | Yes (selective and progressive) | No | Le Pen et al. (2008) |
| MitoPark (Tfam) | Conditional knock-out, using Cre expressed in dopaminergic neurons (dopamine transporter promoter-Cre) | Yes (progressive) | Yes (selective and progressive) | Atypical | Ekstrand et al. (2007) |
Advantages and disadvantages of different models are evaluated using three criteria: (1) motor deficits, (2) DA neuron degeneration, and (3) pathological changes in neurons. All are mouse models except where indicated.