title: Cortical Lewy body-containing neurons are pyramidal cells: laser confocal imaging of double-immunolabeled sections with anti-ubiquitin and SMI32.
abstract: To characterize neurons containing cortical Lewy bodies (LBs), vibratome sections of the superior temporal cortex from eight patients with the LB variant of Alzheimer's disease (LBV) were double-immunolabeled with anti-ubiquitin (a marker of LBs) and anti-nonphosphorylated neurofilament (SMI32; a marker of pyramidal cells) or parvalbumin (PV; a marker of interneurons) and were viewed with a laser-scanning confocal microscope. Almost all (96.1%) the LB-containing neurons were positive for SMI32, but not for PV. Furthermore, the average numbers of SMI32-immunoreactive neurons in layers 3 and 5 were 63% and 77% of those in controls, respectively. PV-immunoreactive neurons showed a greater than 40% decrease. These findings indicate that cortical LB-containing neurons are pyramidal cells and suggest that in LBV, there may be some differences in the degenerative processes effecting pyramidal cells and interneurons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla 92093-0624, USA.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wakabayashi
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Masliah
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000276:immunology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D016631:Lewy Bodies / Q000276:immunology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D016900:Neurofilament Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D010320:Parvalbumins / Q000276:immunology; D017966:Pyramidal Cells / Q000276:immunology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D014452:Ubiquitins / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D016900:Neurofilament Proteins; D010320:Parvalbumins; D014452:Ubiquitins