HOUSTONâJustin Friendâs parents have doctoral degrees and have worked as university lecturers and researchers. So Mr. Friend might have been expected to head for a university after graduating from high school in Bryan, Texas, five years ago. Instead, he attended Texas State Technical College in Waco, and received a two-year degree in welding.
A flurry of emergent research has linked mitochondrial dysfunction to the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. Mitochondrial dysfunction results in impaired ATP generation, loss of cellular repair mechanisms, and cellular inefficiency.
However, the vast majority of people with Parkinson's disease do not have one of these identified genetic abnormalities. It is probable that in people who develop Parkinson's disease early in life (called young-onset Parkinson's disease) there is a genetic component. Because we don't understand very much at this point about how Parkinson's disease is inherited, the implications for children of people with Parkinson's disease are unclear.