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Caspase activation in the limbic cortex of subjects with early Alzheimer's disease
Author(s) -
Gastard Myriam C.,
Troncoso Juan C.,
Koliatsos Vassilis E.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
annals of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.764
H-Index - 296
eISSN - 1531-8249
pISSN - 0364-5134
DOI - 10.1002/ana.10680
Subject(s) - temporal lobe , alzheimer's disease , colocalization , neuroscience , neurofibrillary tangle , temporal cortex , pathology , hippocampus , tangle , psychology , medicine , disease , senile plaques , epilepsy , mathematics , pure mathematics
We investigated the cleavage of caspase‐3, a marker of apoptosis, in the medial temporal lobe of older subjects with minimal cognitive deficits and low CERAD/intermediate Braak scores, that is, clinicopathological descriptors of early Alzheimer's disease (AD). The activation of caspase‐3 was studied with immunoprecipitation–mass spectroscopy and immunocytochemistry, including colocalization with paired helical filaments in the neuropil and perikarya. We found that caspase‐3 is activated in the parahippocampal gyrus in subjects with mild AD and that this event is silenced in more advanced illness. Caspase‐3 immunoreactivity has a tangle‐like appearance that coevolves with paired helical filament pathology within neurons. We propose that activation of apoptosis may occur very early in the medial temporal lobe in AD. Ann Neurol 2003;54:393–398