[Alzheimer's disease: the glial reaction is general and severe in all areas of the central nervous system].

GFAP (Glial Fibrillary Acidic protein) was quantified in unfractionated homogenates of different brain regions from 10 Alzheimer patients versus 25 controls using immunoblot techniques and anti-human GFAP. There was a strong increase of GFAP in the brain regions that contained the characteristic Alzheimer lesions. This corresponds to the "astrocytic gliosis". Moreover, there was a 11 fold GFAP increase (p less than 0.001) in the other regions of the Alzheimer brains that do not present the Alzheimer pathology, such as caudate nucleus, cerebellum or brain stem. Different from the gliosis, the physiological signification of such an increase in the whole brain is unknown, but it might reflect the prominent part played by astrocytes during Alzheimer's disease (AD).