Carl Cotman and colleagues have several articles on the correlation of
apoptosis and neuronal indicators of Alzheimer's
"Stavros P. Zanos" <stavrosz at med.auth.gr> wrote:
>Dear colleagues,
>Im not sure whether this is the right list to post this kind of question,
>however I could really use any information, since my Neurology and
>Neuropathology exams are approaching. Please respond personally to my
>email address if you consider this discussion as out of the scopes of the
>list.
>Two typical histopathological findings in Alzheimer brains are:
>1. The innumerable neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) found in the limbic and
>association cortices, accompanied by NFTs in neurons of subcortical nuclei
>that project to these regions (locus ceruleus, median raphe nuclei).
>2. Neurons in the limbic and association cortices, and in the subcortical
>nuclei that project to them, often undergo perikaryal shrinkage and other
>morphological manifestations of apoptotic neuronal cell-death.
>I was wandering whether these two findings (NFTs and apoptosis) coincide
>in the same neurons, since they appear to affect the same brain regions.
>If this was the case, then NFT pathology (helical and straight
>intracellular
>filaments) might participate in the pathogenesis of neuronal loss, as has
>already been suggested for amyloid beta protein. If, on the other hand,
>neurons that undergo apoptosis do not pass through a stage of NFT
>formation, then it would be possible that NFTs wouldnt be a specific
>histological marker of AD, as has been suggested in some studies that
>implicated NFT formation in connection to certain kinds of neuronal injury
>(I can recall subacute sclerosing panecephalitis as an example).
>Thank you for your time.
>Stavros Zanos
>Depts. of Experimental Physiology
>Aristotle Univ. School of Medicine
>Thessaloniki, GREECE
>http://www.med.auth.gr/~stavrosz/
Richard A. Lockshin
(lockshin at mindspring.com;lockshin at sjumusic.stjohns.edu)
check out Cell Death Soc web page:
http://rdz.stjohns.edu/~lockshin/index.html
