People with a genetic mutation linked to Parkinsons disease may have an increased risk of contracting the neurodegenerative disorder if they have been exposed to certain pesticides, according to a new study published in the journal Cell.

Conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., the research involved using human stem cells, derived from a patient with Parkinsons disease, to analyze the relationship between Parkinsons and pesticides.

Though previous epidemiological and animal studies have attempted to prove a connection between exposure to pesticides and a higher susceptibility to Parkinsons, this was the first study that successfully used human cells to examine the link.

To conduct their analysis, researchers gathered skin cells from a Parkinsons patient who possessed a genetic mutation linked to the disease, in the gene encoding a protein called alpha-synuclein. The researchers then transformed these skin cells into human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and corrected the Parkinsons mutation in half of the cells, in order to provide a basis for comparison.

Researchers then transformed all of these hiPSCs into a specific type of nerve cell damaged in Parkinsons disease: A9 dopamine-containing neurons. These nerve cells are the first to be affected by Parkinsons disease and are linked to motor sequencing, or the ability to start and stop movements a common problem in Parkinsons patients.

Many think of Parkinsons disease as tremor, shaking, rigidity and stiffness. But its also very important to know that it is the sequencing of movements beginning and stopping a movement where patients really get into trouble and these particular cells really control that, lead study author Dr. Stuart Lipton, professor and director of Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute's Del E. Webb Center for Neuroscience, Aging, and Stem Cell Research, told FoxNews.com.

Researchers then exposed the nerve cells to a combination of pesticides, including paraquat, maneb, and rotenone, which are commonly used in agricultural settings in the United States. Notably, the levels of exposure tested by the researchers were well below EPA-recommended levels.

We did a dose response of pesticides, and that particular dose had been implicated in the human epidemiological studies as being strongly associated with Parkinsons, Lipton said. And what we found is we could give very low doses of that combination (of pesticides), and the cells with the genetic mutation would die and the cells without that would not.

Overall, the researchers determined that exposure to pesticides seems to increase the likelihood that people with a genetic risk for the disease will actually go on to contract the illness.

If youre susceptible to Parkinsons disease, you will be more susceptible to getting it earlier if you are exposed to pesticides, Lipton said.

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