Neurofibrillary tangles in the peripheral sympathetic ganglia of non-Alzheimer elderly individuals.
OBJECTIVE
To clarify whether neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) formation in the peripheral nervous system is related to that in the central nervous system (CNS), we examined the sympathetic and spinal ganglia from 20 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), 8 with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and 100 non-demented individuals, all older than 60 years of age.


RESULTS
NFTs were found in the sympathetic ganglia in two elderly (72- and 84-year-old) individuals without AD pathology. Ultrastructurally, these NFTs were composed of paired helical filaments which showed positive immunohistochemical staining with antibodies against ubiquitin and phosphorylation-dependent and -independent epitopes of tau protein. They were identical to those observed in the CNS. No NFTs were detected in the sympathetic or spinal ganglia in AD and PSP patients.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings indicate that NFTs in the peripheral ganglia are uncommon and develop independently of the neurofibrillary pathology that occurs in the CNS.
Wakabayashi
K
K
Brain Disease Research Center, Brain Research Institute, Niigata University, Japan.
Hayashi
S
S
Morita
T
T
Shibasaki
Y
Y
Watanabe
Y
Y
Takahashi
H
H
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000473:pathology; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005727:Ganglia, Spinal / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005728:Ganglia, Sympathetic / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008875:Middle Aged; D016874:Neurofibrillary Tangles / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D017933:Peripheral Nervous System / Q000473:pathology*; D013494:Supranuclear Palsy, Progressive / Q000473:pathology