Tau pathology in diffuse neurofibrillary tangles with calcification (DNTC): biochemical and immunohistochemical investigation.
Diffuse neurofibrillary tangles with calcification (DNTC) represents a primary and sporadic presenile dementia that is characterized by temporal or fronto-temporal atrophy with diffuse neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), neuropil threads and Fahr-type calcification without senile plaques. We examined the tau pathology in five autopsy cases of DNTC by immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry using phosphorylation-dependent and -independent anti-tau antibodies. The pattern of staining for different epitopes of beta-amyloid (A beta) was also investigated. NFTs were immunopositive with all the anti-tau antibodies used in this study. On the immunoblots, sarkosyl-insoluble tau appeared as three major bands of 60, 64 and 68 kDa, and as a minor band at 72 kDa. The majority of extracellular NFTs were weakly immunopositive only with the antibody recognizing the 40 carboxyl-terminal of A beta in DNTC. These results suggest that Alzheimer's disease-like tau pathology could exist independently of A beta deposits in DNTC.
Tanabe
Y
Y
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Okayama University Medical School, Japan.
Ishizu
H
H
Ishiguro
K
K
Itoh
N
N
Terada
S
S
Haraguchi
T
T
Kawai
K
K
Kuroda
S
S
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D001284:Atrophy / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D002114:Calcinosis / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D000939:Epitopes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009410:Nerve Degeneration / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D016874:Neurofibrillary Tangles / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010766:Phosphorylation; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure
D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D000939:Epitopes; D016875:tau Proteins