Objective To study the molecular mechanism of MPTP-induced neuronal degeneration of substantia nigra in C57BL mice. Methods The C57BL mice model of Parkinson's disease were prepared by peritoneal administration of MPTP. These differentially expressed sequenced tags (EST) were obtained with mRNA differential display technique. Reverse Northern blotting was employed to eliminate the false positive ESTs. The true positive EST were cloned and sequenced. Results One of the two specific EST in degenerative substantia nigra was sequensed to be 121 bp and showed low homology with human v-abl Abelson murine leukemia viral oncogene (abl) exon 1b. Conclusions Our data suggested that MPTP may induce altered expression of promoting apoptotic genes to cause neuronal degeneration in substantia nigra.