Deficiency of a neuronal growth-sustaining factor in fibroblasts of patients with Alzheimer's disease.
A previous report has shown a deficiency of a cholinergic differentiating factor in spent culture media in which Alzheimer's disease (AD) patient fibroblasts were grown (Kessler, 1987). We used a similar approach to investigate whether AD fibroblast-conditioned medium demonstrated central nervous system (CNS) neuronal growth sustaining properties. For these investigations we used cultured fetal murine telencephalic vesicle neurons. Control fibroblast-conditioned medium produced statistically significant neuronal survival as compared to AD fibroblast-conditioned medium or to nonconditioned medium. There was no statistically significant difference between AD fibroblast-conditioned medium and nonconditioned medium results. These results suggest that there may be a deficiency in AD of a CNS neuronal growth-sustaining factor.
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Division of Neurology, Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, Chicago, IL 60616, USA.
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000818:Animals; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000502:physiology; D017077:Culture Media, Conditioned; D005260:Female; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors / Q000172:deficiency*; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology
D017077:Culture Media, Conditioned; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors