PMID: 2492060Jan 1, 1989Paper

Tau protein immunoreactivity in dementia of the Alzheimer type. I. Morphology, evolution, distribution, and pathogenetic implications

Laboratory Investigation; a Journal of Technical Methods and Pathology
S C Papasozomenos

Abstract

The author has used two monoclonal antibodies against tau, Tau-1 and Tau-2, to study at the light microscopic level the morphology, evolution, and distribution of tau immunoreactivity in 21 cases with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) with clinical histories of dementia ranging from 6 months to 10-15 years. They included four cases with Alzheimer's disease (AD), 14 cases with senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT), and three demented patients with Down's Syndrome (DS). The morphology and distribution of tau immunoreactivity was similar in all three forms of DAT, but the rapidity of evolution, as judged by the duration of dementia and the amount of immunoreactivity, was most severe in DS with dementia and least severe in SDAT. Excessive tau immunoreactivity, as compared with controls which were negative, was present in both astrocytes and vulnerable neurons. Tau-2-positive astrocytes were present throughout the brain and even in regions with no neuronal vulnerability. In evolving cases, several regions that in full-blown cases showed neuronal involvement contained only labeled astrocytes. The neurofibrillary tangles in neuronal involvement contained only labeled astrocytes. The neurofibrillary tangles in neuronal perika...Continue Reading

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