A consanguineous Turkish family with early-onset Parkinson's disease and an exon 4 parkin deletion

Abstract

The importance of parkin in early-onset Parkinson's disease in Japan, Europe, and the United States is well established. The contribution of this gene to the risk of Parkinson's disease in other populations is less well known. To explore the importance of parkin in those of Turkish ancestry, we studied familial cases from that country, and identified a consanguineous family with early-onset Parkinson's disease due to a homozygous mutation in parkin. (C) 2004 Movement Disorder Society.