Senile dementia of the neurofibrillary tangle type: a comparison with Alzheimer's disease.
A subset of senile dementia, 'senile dementia (SD) of the neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) type' (SD-NFT), is characterized by numerous NFTs in the hippocampal region and absence or scarcity of senile plaques throughout the brain. To elucidate the pathogenesis of SD-NFT in comparison with Alzheimer's disease (AD), we investigated the hippocampal lesions and analyzed the tau gene. The hippocampal regions from 5 patients with SD-NFT were neuropathologically evaluated in comparison with AD and nondemented control subjects. The tau gene was analyzed in 3 patients with SD-NFT. The densities of NFTs in the CA1/subiculum and entorhinal cortex of SD-NFT were significantly higher than those in AD. However, hippocampal atrophy, neuronal and synaptic loss, and astrocytic and microglial proliferation in SD-NFT were significantly mild compared with AD. There was no significant difference between SD-NFT and AD in the immunoreactivities of NFTs with different anti-tau antibodies. No mutation was found in the tau gene from the SD-NFT patients. Our results indicate that the neurodegenerative process with NFT formation of the hippocampal region in SD-NFT would be different from that in AD.
Yamada
M
M
Department of Neurology, Kanazawa University School of Medicine, Kanazawa, Japan. m-yamada@med.kanazawa-u.ac.jp
Itoh
Y
Y
Sodeyama
N
N
Suematsu
N
N
Otomo
E
E
Matsushita
M
M
Mizusawa
H
H
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000276:immunology; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D001284:Atrophy / Q000473:pathology; D001921:Brain / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / Q000276:immunology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D017628:Microglia / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D016874:Neurofibrillary Tangles / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*; D010766:Phosphorylation; D017354:Point Mutation; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000276:immunology
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein; D016875:tau Proteins