Death-associated protein kinase (DAPK1) in cerebral cortex of late-onset Alzheimer's disease patients and aged controls.
OBJECTIVE
Here our objective was to detect the pro-apoptotic serine/threonine kinase death-associated protein kinase (DAPK1) in aged human cerebral cortex and to test the hypothesis that DAPK1 abundance is associated with late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD).


METHODS
Using Western analysis and immunohistochemistry we evaluated post mortem frontal cerebral cortex from patients with severe AD (mean age 76 years, range 66-91, n = 11, all male), and from control cases without serious central nervous system illness (mean age 77 years, range 61-95, n = 12, all male). We also examined brains of Tg2576 transgenic mice (males, aged 16-21 months), a model for chronic amyloid-induced brain injury.


RESULTS
Immunohistochemical labelling showed DAPK1 expression in cortical neurones of human cortex and axonal tracts within subcortical white matter, both in AD and in control brains. Western analysis confirmed DAPK1 expression in all samples, although expression was very low in some control cases. DAPK1 abundance in the AD group was not significantly different from that in controls (P = 0.07, Mann-Whitney test). In brains of Tg2576 mice DAPK1 abundance was very similar to that in wild-type littermates (P = 0.96, Mann-Whitney test).


CONCLUSIONS
We found that DAPK1 was expressed in neurones of aged human frontal cortex, both in AD and in control cases.
Hainsworth
A H
AH
Clinical Neuroscience, St George's University of London, London, UK. ahainsworth@sgul.ac.uk
Allsopp
R C
RC
Jim
A
A
Potter
J F
JF
Lowe
J
J
Talbot
C J
CJ
Prettyman
R J
RJ
D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology; D000818:Animals; D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D017871:Calcium-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinases / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology; D064550:Death-Associated Protein Kinases; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic
D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins; C579096:DAPK1 protein, human; C579106:Dapk1 protein, mouse; D064550:Death-Associated Protein Kinases; D017871:Calcium-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinases