Screening of ferritin light polypeptide 460-461InsA mutation in Parkinson's disease patients in North America

An insertional (460-461lnsA) mutation in the ferritin light polypeptide (FTL) gene was recently reported in some patients with a familial form of basal ganglia degeneration with varying extrapyramidal manifestations. Some of the affected family members presented with a phenotype indistinguishable from typical Parkinson's disease (PD). In this study, 253 patients with a clinical diagnosis of idiopathic PD were screened for the insertion in the FTL gene by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method. The results showed that none of them had the mutation, indicating that genetic defects in the FTL gene are unlikely to be a common cause of typical PD, at least in a North America population. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.