title: Elemental analysis of neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer's disease using proton-induced X-ray analysis.
abstract: We have investigated the elemental content of hippocampal slices from normal human brain and from brains of Alzheimer's disease patients by X-ray fluorescence using both electron and proton beam microprobes. The sections have been stained with a dye--toluidine blue--which contains sulphur so that the X-ray fluorescence map can be correlated with known intracellular sites as seen under the light microscope. The results show that associated with neurofibrillary tangles and Hirano bodies (the distinctive internal visual features of cells from Alzheimer's disease patients) there is increased calcium. We cannot confirm that there are peculiarities in the distribution of aluminium in cells.
authors: Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford, UK.
authors: F E
authors: FE
authors: Murray
authors: J P
authors: JP
authors: Landsberg
authors: R J
authors: RJ
authors: Williams
authors: M M
authors: MM
authors: Esiri
authors: F
authors: F
authors: Watt
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000737:chemistry; D004577:Electron Probe Microanalysis; D006801:Humans; D016874:Neurofibrillary Tangles / Q000737:chemistry*; D013052:Spectrometry, X-Ray Emission