title: The spatial patterns of plaques and tangles in Alzheimer's disease do not support the 'cascade hypothesis'.
abstract: In Alzheimer's disease (AD), the 'Cascade hypothesis' proposes that the formation of paired helical filaments (PHF) may be casually linked to the deposition of beta/A4 protein. Hence, there should be a close spatial relationship between senile plaques and cellular neurofibrillary tangles in a local region of the brain. In tissue from 6 AD patients, plaques and tangles occurred in clusters and individual clusters were often regularly spaced along the cortical strip. However, the clusters of plaques and tangles were in phase in only 4/32 cortical tissues examined. Hence, the data were not consistent with the 'Cascade hypothesis' that beta/A4 and PHF are directly linked in AD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Vision Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK.
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Armstrong
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Myers
authors.forename: C U
authors.initials: CU
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000473:pathology*; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000378:metabolism; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007382:Intermediate Filaments / Q000378:metabolism; D008875:Middle Aged; D016874:Neurofibrillary Tangles / Q000473:pathology*; D016622:Silver Staining
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides