In the new study, Wang's team obtained skin samples from 83 Parkinson's patients, five asymptomatic close relatives considered to be at heightened risk, 22 patients diagnosed with other movement disorders and 52 healthy control subjects. They extracted fibroblasts -- cells that are common in skin tissue -- from the samples, cultured them in petri dishes and subjected them to a stressful process that messes up mitochondria. This should result in their clearance, necessarily preceded by removal of Miro molecules tethering them to the grid. Yet the researchers found the Miro-removal defect in 78 of the 83 Parkinson's fibroblasts (94%) and in all 5 of the "high-risk" samples, but not in fibroblasts from the control group or other or from patients with other movement-disorders. - www.sciencedaily.com