Similarly, a dramatic reduction in the Ca2+ buffering protein calbindin levels has been described in brains of PD patients (Iacopino and Christakos, 1990) and dopaminergic (DA) neurons expressing higher levels of calbindin, or other Ca2+ buffers such as calretinin and parvalbumin, were shown to be resistant to degeneration in PD (Yamada et al., 1990; Tsuboi et al., 2000). The gene discussed is CALB1; the disease is Parkinson disease.