title: Tau-protein expression in human blood lymphocytes: a promising marker and suitable sample for life-time diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVES: Taking into account the hypothesis that Alzheimer's disease (AD) might be a systemic disease that affects several tissues in the body, the aim of this study was to try to detect the expression of tau-protein in human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) in patients with AD. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Blood samples were obtained from patients with AD (n=16, age 67-98) and from volunteers without psychoneurological pathology (n=10, age 65-78). PBL were isolated on Ficoll-Paque gradient centrifugation. For cell fixation and permeabilization we used a fixative solution (4% formaldehyde and 0.1% glutaraldehyde) and 0.03% Triton X-100. Immunocytochemical detection of tau-protein was carried out by biotin-streptavidin complex method with tau monoclonal antibody (1:100, clone TAU-2, ICN) and universal immunostaining kit IMMU-MARK (ICN). RESULTS: The expression of tau-protein was shown in PBL in absolute majority of AD patients studied. Only in two healthy volunteers a single lymphocyte from many cells (i.e. a smear) demonstrated a very weak-positive immunostaining to tau-protein CONCLUSION: This first demonstration of clear difference in localization of tau-protein in blood lymphocytes between healthy and sick people testifies to the fact that tau-protein could be considered as a promising marker and blood lymphocytes as a suitable sample for life-time diagnosis of AD.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Citologicas, Valencia 46010, Spain. kvetnoy@ochoa. fib.es
authors.forename: Igor M.
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Kvetnoy
authors.forename: Jose
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hernandez-Yago
authors.forename: Tatiana V.
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: Kvetnaia
authors.forename: Vladimir Kh.
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Khavinson
authors.forename: Vladimir V.
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: Malinin
authors.forename: Alexander A.
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Yarilin
authors.forename: Nina I.
authors.initials: NI
authors.lastname: Sharova
authors.forename: Jose R.
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Blesa
authors.forename: Vladimir N.
authors.initials: VN
authors.lastname: Anisimov
authors.forename: Lilia V.
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Lenskaia
authors.forename: Sofia F.
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Sluchevskaia
authors.forename: Svetlana I.
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Chekalina
authors.forename: Oleg Yu.
authors.initials: OY
authors.lastname: Tokarev
authors.forename: Vadim V.
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: Yuzhakov