Even though the most striking HD-related neuropathological alterations are found in striatum, we decided to test SPL expression in cortical brain tissue for the following reason: cerebral cortex displays pathological features of HD27, but it exhibits less dramatic neuronal loss than striatum as determined by flow cytometry counts of NeuN-postive cell fraction of HD and control samples28. This evidence concerns the gene RBFOX3 and Huntington disease.