Parkinson s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder The motor neuron degeneration 2 mutant (mnd2) mouse is considered to be an animal model of PD and exhibits striatal neuron loss severe muscle wasting weight loss and death before 40 days of age We found for the first time that parkin expression was decreased in the mnd2 mouse brain Since parkin is a crucial protein for PD the neurodegenerative disorder in mnd2 mice may be caused by parkin protein loss We therefore examined whether compensation of parkin protein prevents neurodegenerative disorders in mnd2 mice by generating parkin-transgenic (parkin-Tg) mnd2 mice However both parkin-Tg mnd2 mice and mnd2 mice were smaller than wild type mice In muscle strength and survival rate parkin-Tg mnd2 mice showed similar values to mnd2 mice Our data suggest that repression of parkin protein does not play a major role in neurodegeneration of mnd2 mice and administration of parkin protein does not rescue mnd2 mice (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved