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DJ-1 was initially identified by us as a novel oncogene and has later been found to be a causative gene for familial Parkinson's disease PARK7. DJ-1 plays role in transcriptional regulation and in oxidative stress function, and loss of its function is thought to be related to onset age, mode of progression and clinical severity of both familial and sporadic forms of Parkinson's disease (PD). DJ-1 is localized both in the cytoplasm and nucleus, and it has been reported to be secreted into the serum or plasma of patients with breast cancer, melanoma, familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy and stroke. In this study, levels of DJ-1 secreted into the serum of healthy controls and patients with sporadic PD were examined by using a DJ-1 ELISA kit, and the level of oxidative stress in the serum was also measured. The results showed that DJ-1 was secreted into the serum of both healthy controls and PD patients. There was no significant difference between the levels of secreted DJ-1 in two groups, and correlations of levels of secreted DJ-1 with age, clinical severity of PD and level of oxidative stress were not found.

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) has been rediscovered as a hormone and immunomodulator as well as a proinflammatory cytokine. We investigated the expression of MIF protein and mRNA in the rat brain using optimized immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization, respectively. By immunohistochemical analysis, we found that MIF protein was present in the epithelial cells of the choroid plexus and ependymal cells as well as astrocyte-like cells in the cerebral white matter and cortex. Tissue sections double-stained for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and MIF revealed the presence of MIF protein in astrocytes, whereas this protein was scarcely identified in the neurons by staining using an anti-MIF antibody. We also measured the MIF content in the cerebrospinal fluid, which was 15.5 +/- 2.5 ng/ml (mean +/- SEM), comparable to the serum MIF value. In contrast, expression of MIF mRNA was found not only in astrocytes but also in neurons by the in situ hybridization technique. These results suggest that MIF plays a pivotal role as an immunomodulatory cytokine for inflammatory reactions and immune responses in the whole central nervous system.

Androgens play an important role in motoneuron growth, development and regeneration. We proved the existence of androgen receptor (AR) in the motoneurons of the rat spinal cord by the immunohistochemical stain and Western blotting. The possibility that AR protein in spinal cord is expressed in tissue-specific form is proposed, being different from other androgen-dependent tissues. AR abnormality in X-linked spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) among a variety of motor neuron diseases were reported recently. Our study may give some clue to the AR abnormality leading to the degeneration of motoneurons.