title: Survival of motor neurons and expression of beta-amyloid protein in the aged rat spinal cord.
abstract: The present study investigated expression of beta-amyloid protein (AP) and Amyloid precursor protein (APP) in spinal motor neurons of young adult (3 month old) and aged (26-30 month old) rats. The total number of spinal motor neurons in the seventh cervical (C7) spinal segment was also examined in both young adult and aged rats. There was an approximately 21% (p<0.001) decrease in the number of motor neurons of the C7 spinal segment in aged rats compared with young ones. Immunoreactivity (IR) of AP and APP was not observed in spinal motor neurons of young adult rats. In contrast, approximately 50% of the spinal motor neurons of the aged rats were APP positive. Furthermore, extensive immunoreactivity was found in the processes of spinal motor neurons of aged rats. These results have shown that AP and APP is coincident with the loss of motor neurons in the spinal cord of aged rats, and might be associated with the degenerative processes of ageing motor neurons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Y Y
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Z B
authors.initials: ZB
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: W T
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000032:analysis*; D016564:Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor / Q000032:analysis; D000818:Animals; D002452:Cell Count; D016923:Cell Death; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000502:physiology*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D016564:Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor