title: Effect of hypothermia on postmortem alterations in MAP2 immunostaining in the human hippocampus.
abstract: Ischemic neuronal injury induce degradation of microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2). In addition to ischemia, postmortem brains show alterations in MAP2 immunoreactivity in the hippocampus, suggesting that the factors inducing cytoskeletal disruption in postmortem brain are similar to those in ischemic brains. Hypothermia reduces the severity of ischemic injury including disruption of MAP2 in the hippocampus. However, whether hypothermia reduces postmortem changes of MAP2 was not clear. In this study, we evaluated the effect of hypothermia on postmortem degradation of MAP2 in the human hippocampus at various postmortem intervals using immunohistochemistry. In postmortem brains without hypothermia (the normothermic group), the locus of MAP2 immunoreactivity moved from the dendrites to the cell bodies prior to becoming undetectable with increasing postmortem interval, particularly in the CA1-subiculum region. On the other hand, the change in MAP2 immunoreactivity was remarkably attenuated in brains of death from cold (the hypothermic group). The present study demonstrated that MAP2 disruption is remarkable in the CA1-subiculum region of autopsied brains and that hypothermia reduces the postmortem change of MAP2, as observed in ischemic brain. Therefore, immunostaining of MAP2 in the hippocampus could be used to diagnose hypothermia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Medicine, Institute of Health Biosciences, The University of Tokushima Graduate School, 3-18-15 Kuramoto, Tokushima 770-8503, Japan. northv@basic.med.tokushima-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kitamura
authors.forename: Takako
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gotohda
authors.forename: Akiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ishigami
authors.forename: Itsuo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tokunaga
authors.forename: Shin-Ichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kubo
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nakasono
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001344:Autopsy; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003712:Dendrites / Q000378:metabolism; D018891:Dentate Gyrus / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007035:Hypothermia / Q000378:metabolism*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011180:Postmortem Changes
chemical_list: D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins