Fibroblasts in Huntington's Disease

Abstract

We investigated the growth of skin fibroblasts in tissue culture from 10 patients with Huntington's disease and eight healthy, unrelated controls. The patients' ages ranged from 34 to 56 years (mean, 48.5), and the mean duration of their clinical illness was 12.4 years. The controls' ages ranged from 32 to 64 years (mean, 42.3). No statistically significant differences were observed between the two groups in outgrowth of cells from the biopsies nor during subsequent routine culturing of fibroblasts. This contradicts the finding of earlier investigators that skin fibroblasts from patients with Huntingtons disease grow poorly in tissue culture. Matched pairs of Huntington's disease and control cultures grew at the same rate, but Huntingtons disease cells grew to a significantly higher maximal density (P < 0.02). This may indicate a genetically determined change in the cell surface or metabolic difference in Huntingtons disease. (N Engl J Med 293:1225–1227, 1975)