Elsevier

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 331, Issue 3, 18 October 2002, Pages 171-174
Neuroscience Letters

Pathological relationships between microglial cell activity and tau and amyloid β protein in patients with Alzheimer's disease

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3940(02)00888-1Get rights and content

Abstract

The extent of microglial cell activation (microglial cell load) was estimated by image analysis of ferritin-immunostained sections of frontal cortex from 72 patients with pathologically confirmed Alzheimer's disease (AD), and correlated with the amount of pathological tau and amyloid β protein (Aβ), as both Aβ40 and Aβ42 load, in adjacent sections of the same cases. Microglial cell load did not correlate with either Aβ40 or Aβ42 load but was significantly correlated with pathological tau load. Microglial cell load was unrelated to age at onset of disease or duration of illness. It is possible that because the presence of microglial cells predates that of pathological tau proteins within the cerebral cortex in AD, neurofibrillary damage to nerve cells may stem from the release of proinflammatory and other potentially neurotoxic molecules from microglial cells.

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