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The involvement of the T cell related cytokine in Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s disease occurs when a specific population of neurons called dopamine neurons die in the middle part of the brain. There is debate as to why this happens but there is increasing evidence that cells in the brain called astrocytes might become dysfunctional and this could have a negative impact on nerve cell survival. Astrocytes are star shaped cells and their job under normal conditions is to provide support to nerve cells. However, they can respond to stress in the brain such as to a factor released in response to a signal from a stimulated immune system. Indeed our knowledge of the role that the immune system can play in Parkinson’s is still growing and has gained a lot of attention recently. One potential aspect of the immune system will be studied in this project. This will be tested by looking at the effect of a protein, interleukin-17 (IL-17) that is released by one of our immune cells called T-cells. It will be added to human astrocytes that we have generated from stem cells originally grown from the skin of a person with Parkinson’s and also from an aged matched control and its effects will be determined. This will include determination of how the shape of the astrocyte changes, examination of what factors the astrocyte will release such as the measurement of a protein called interleukin-6 which we know astrocytes secrete when they are stressed.