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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences logoLink to Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
. 1999 Jun 29;354(1386):1075–1078. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1999.0461

Androgen receptor mutation in Kennedy's disease.

K H Fischbeck 1, A Lieberman 1, C K Bailey 1, A Abel 1, D E Merry 1
PMCID: PMC1692603  PMID: 10434308

Abstract

Kennedy's disease is an X-linked form of motor neuron disease caused by an expanded polyglutamine repeat in the androgen receptor. While the expansion mutation causes some loss of transcriptional activity by the androgen receptor, the predominant effect of expansion is probably a toxic gain of function, similar to the mechanism of other polyglutamine expansion diseases. Features of the neurodegenerative phenotype of Kennedy's disease have now been reproduced in transgenic animals and neuronal cell culture. Nuclear inclusions of mutant androgen receptor protein are found in these model systems and in autopsy samples from patients with Kennedy's disease.

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Selected References

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