Direct determination of the proportion of intra- and extra-cellular neocortical neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer's disease

James C Vickers; Adeline Tan; Tracey C Dickson

doi:10.1016/s0006-8993(03)02429-6

Direct determination of the proportion of intra- and extra-cellular neocortical neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer's disease

Brain Res. 2003 May 2;971(1):135-7. doi: 10.1016/s0006-8993(03)02429-6.

Authors

James C Vickers¹, Adeline Tan, Tracey C Dickson

Affiliation

¹ Discipline of Pathology, School of Medicine, University of Tasmania, 43 Collins St, GPO Box 252-29, Tasmania Hobart 7001, Australia. james.vickers@utas.edu.au

PMID: 12691846
DOI: 10.1016/s0006-8993(03)02429-6

Abstract

We investigated the cellular localisation of neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer's disease. All tau-positive tangles were stained for thioflavine S, while approximately 84% of thioflavine S-stained tangles were tau-immunolabelled. Approximately 58-62% and 73-76% of thioflavine S- and tau-labelled tangles, respectively, were present within cortical neurons labelled for microtubule-associated protein-2. Thus, most neocortical tangles in Alzheimer's disease are intracellular and may not be the principal cause of neocortical cell loss.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Alzheimer Disease / metabolism
Alzheimer Disease / pathology*
Benzothiazoles
Fluorescent Antibody Technique
Humans
Inclusion Bodies / ultrastructure
Microtubule-Associated Proteins / metabolism
Neocortex / metabolism
Neocortex / pathology
Neurofibrillary Tangles / metabolism
Neurofibrillary Tangles / pathology*
Neurofibrillary Tangles / ultrastructure
Neurons / pathology
Neurons / ultrastructure
Plaque, Amyloid / metabolism
Plaque, Amyloid / pathology
Thiazoles / metabolism
tau Proteins / metabolism

Substances

Benzothiazoles
Microtubule-Associated Proteins
Thiazoles
tau Proteins
thioflavin T