Department of Neurology, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
J Alzheimers Dis. 2010;22(3):811-8. doi: 10.3233/JAD-2010-100849.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology is accompanied by abnormalities of the microvasculature. Despite the potential importance of morphometric changes in the cortical capillary network on neuronal dysfunction and cognitive impairment, few autopsy studies have addressed this issue. In the present study, we investigated morphological microvascular changes and capillary length density (CLD) in ten well-characterized AD patients compared to ten age-matched controls using virtual isotropic hemispheres. The CLD in the temporal cortex was increased by 33% in AD patients compared to controls (p=0.04), whereas CLD in the occipital cortex was unchanged. An increase of CLD was correlated to a decrease of cortical diameter in the temporal cortex (Pearson's r -0.62, p=0.003), suggesting that the increase in temporal CLD results from, or contributes to cortical atrophy. In the occipital cortex, more string vessels, probably remnants of degenerated capillaries, were observed in AD patients than in controls (p=0.004). An exploratory analysis suggests co-localization of Aβ and string vessels. Our data indicate that morphometric changes in the cortical capillary network occur in AD in a region-specific manner and may be related to cortical atrophy in the affected regions.
阿尔茨海默病（AD）的病理学伴随着微血管异常。尽管皮质毛细血管网络的形态变化对神经元功能障碍和认知障碍有潜在的重要性，但很少有尸检研究涉及这个问题。在本研究中，我们使用虚拟各向同性半球比较了十名特征明确的 AD 患者和十名年龄匹配的对照者的形态微血管变化和毛细血管长度密度（CLD）。与对照组相比，AD 患者的颞叶皮层 CLD 增加了 33%（p=0.04），而枕叶皮层 CLD 没有变化。CLD 的增加与颞叶皮层皮质直径的减少相关（Pearson r -0.62，p=0.003），表明颞叶 CLD 的增加是由于或导致皮质萎缩。在枕叶皮层中，AD 患者比对照组观察到更多的串珠血管，可能是退化的毛细血管的残余物（p=0.004）。一项探索性分析表明 Aβ 和串珠血管的共定位。我们的数据表明，皮质毛细血管网络的形态变化在 AD 中以特定区域的方式发生，可能与受影响区域的皮质萎缩有关。
