Neurodegeneration is one of the most important subjects of the
investigation now and in the coming 21st century. Alzheimer's disease is
the leading cause of dementia in the elderly people and Parkinson's
disease is one of the major neurologic disorders with the prevalence
between 1 and 2/1 000 population in advanced countries. Many others are
suffering from intractable neurodegener- ative disorders such as
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington's disease, or spinocerebellar
degeneration. No truly effective treatment is available for any of these
neurodegenerative disorders except for Parkinson's disease; even in
Parkinson's disease, still it is impossible to slow down the disease
process with the currently available treatment. It is urgently needed to
develop new effective technique to halt or slow down the disease process
in each of those disorders. Recent advance in the molecular biological
and molecular genetic technique has brought us great progress in the
understanding of etiology and pathogenesis of these disorders, but still
it is not known how neurons are going to die in these disorders. To
explore the question, mutual cooperation and exchange of ideas between
basic scientists and clinical peoples are of utmost importance.