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Increased p75NTR Expression in Hippocampal Neurons Containing Hyperphosphorylated τ in Alzheimer Patients

2002; Elsevier BV; Volume: 178; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1006/exnr.2002.8018

1090-2430

Xiangyou Hu, Huaiyu Zhang, Qin Song, Hao Xu, Dick F. Swaab, Jiang‐Ning Zhou,

S100 Proteins and Annexins

p75NTR, a low-affinity neurotrophin receptor, may be involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The aim of present study was to detect the relationship between p75NTR-containing neurons and the pretangles consisting of hyperphosphorylated τ stained by Alz-50 in the hippocampus of AD patients. Samples of hippocampus of 10 female AD patients and 10 nondemented female controls matched for age and postmortem delay were investigated immunocytochemically, and the stainings were quantified using an image analysis system. The results showed that: (i) p75NTR was present in about half of the pyramidal neurons of the CA1–CA4 subfields of hippocampus. No difference was observed in the number of p75NTR immunoreactive neurons in the CA1–CA4 subfields between the two groups. Interestingly, the ratio of p75NTR expressing neurons to the total number of neurons as staining with thionin was significantly higher in the CA1 and CA2 subfields of AD hippocampus than in controls. (ii) There were a large number of Alz-50 neurons and double-labeled neurons containing p75NTR and Alz-50 in the CA1 and CA2 subfields of AD patients. These results suggest that p75NTR may be involved in the formation of tangles in the Alzheimer process.