Mizuno Yuji, Takeuchi Toshiyuki, Takatama Masamitsu, Okamoto Koichi
Department of Neurology, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, 3-39-22 Showa-machi, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan.
Neurosci Lett. 2003 Dec 4;352(2):109-12. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2003.08.056.
Nestin is one of the intermediate filament proteins and mainly expressed during the development of the central nervous system. We examined the cerebellum of patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), multiple system atrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, using anti-human nestin antibodies. The antibodies strongly immunostained the cytoplasm, dendrites and torpedoes of Purkinje cells in CJD. However, Purkinje cells in other neurodegenerative disorders were not nestin-immunoreactive. Nestin immunoreactivities became more marked as the pathological severity in the cerebellum increased. Our findings suggest that nestin is strongly expressed in Purkinje cells in pathologically advanced CJD and show the possibility that Purkinje cells are being reactivated to promote survival.
