title: Progression of cerebral amyloid angiopathy: accumulation of amyloid-beta40 in affected vessels.
abstract: Cerebrovascular deposits of amyloid (cerebral amyloid angiopathy, or CAA) are generally asymptomatic, but in advanced cases, they can lead to vessel rupture and hemorrhage. The process of progression in CAA was studied by comparison of postmortem brains with asymptomatic ("mild") CAA to brains with the form of the disease associated with hemorrhage ("severe CAA"). Cortical and meningeal vessels were immunostained for beta-amyloid and examined by confocal microscopy and by systematic quantitative sampling. We focused on 2 quantitative parameters: the proportion of vessels affected by amyloid (a measure of amyloid seeding of vessels) and the amount of amyloid per affected vessel (a measure of growth of existing lesions). Surprisingly, there was no difference between the proportion of affected cortical vessels in mild and severe CAA (0.29 vs 0.32, p = 0.65), but rather an increase in the area of the 40 amino acid form of beta-amyloid per affected cortical vessel (198.5 +/- 38.7 vs 455.8 +/- 100.9 microm2/vessel, p < 0.007). Increasing doses (from 0 to 1 to 2 copies) of the apolipoprotein E epsilon4 allele were also associated with greater amyloid per vessel without change in the proportion of affected vessels within each class of CAA severity. These findings suggest that progression from asymptomatic to advanced CAA reflects progressive accumulation of amyloid in vessels previously seeded with amyloid, and that this process is selectively enhanced by apolipoprotein E epsilon4.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston 02114, USA.
authors.forename: N C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Alonzo
authors.forename: B T
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Hyman
authors.forename: G W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Rebeck
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Greenberg
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000378:metabolism*; D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000235:genetics; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D016657:Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology; D018450:Disease Progression; D019084:Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect; D006801:Humans; D008578:Meninges / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000378:metabolism*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D001057:Apolipoproteins E; D010446:Peptide Fragments; C078592:amyloid beta-protein (1-40)