A novel technique for the isolation of Lewy bodies in brain

Previously, immunohistochemical methods were primarily used to detect and provide indirect evidence on the composition of Lewy bodies, the pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease. This was chiefly because there are very few procedures that describe the isolation of these structures. We report here a relatively simple method that we have developed for the exclusive isolation of Lewy bodies from brain tissue. The isolation of the Lewy bodies and subsequent evaluation of their components may furnish an insight into their role in the neurodegenerative mechanism(s) operating in the spectrum of Lewy body disorders.