Presence of calpain II immunoreactivity in senile plaques in Alzheimer's disease.
Calpains are calcium-dependent neutral cysteine proteinases. We utilized a specific anti-calpain II antibody to examine immunohistochemically whether calpain II is associated with pathological changes in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Calpain II was mainly expressed in the neurons in control human brains. In AD brains, intense immunoreactivity was present in the dystrophic neurites of senile plaques. These results suggest that calpain II is involved in the pathogenesis of AD.
Shimohama
S
S
Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Kyoto University, Japan.
Suenaga
T
T
Araki
W
W
Yamaoaka
Y
Y
Shimizu
K
K
Kimura
J
J
D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D002154:Calpain / Q000032:analysis*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D016501:Neurites / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology; D012016:Reference Values; D013194:Staining and Labeling
D002154:Calpain