Hof P R, Nimchinsky E A, Celio M R, Bouras C, Morrison J H
Fishberg Research Center for Neurobiology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029.
Neurosci Lett. 1993 Apr 2;152(1-2):145-8. doi: 10.1016/0304-3940(93)90504-e.
Recent studies have revealed that select neuronal populations may display a differential sensitivity to degeneration in Alzheimer's disease. For example, large pyramidal neurons have been shown to be vulnerable, whereas small, local circuit neurons appear to be resistant to the pathologic process. More significantly, interneurons that contain the calcium-binding proteins parvalbumin and calbindin are particularly resistant to degeneration in Alzheimer's disease. Using a polyclonal antibody to the calcium-binding protein calretinin, we analyzed the possible changes in the subset of interneurons containing this protein in two neocortical areas that are generally devastated in Alzheimer's disease. In the prefrontal cortex as well as in the inferior temporal cortex, we observed no difference in the density of calretinin-immunoreactive neurons in Alzheimer's disease brains as compared to control cases. Moreover, the cellular morphology of these neurons was well preserved in the Alzheimer's disease cases. These data suggest that calretinin-immunoreactive neurons, like other calcium-binding protein-containing interneurons, are resistant to degeneration in Alzheimer's disease. The results support the notion that the pathological process in Alzheimer's disease involves specific cellular populations sharing particular morphological and neurochemical characteristics. In addition, it is possible that the presence of calcium-binding proteins confers a certain degree of resistance to degeneration in specific neuronal subsets.
最近的研究表明，特定的神经元群体可能对阿尔茨海默病中的神经变性表现出不同的敏感性。例如，大型锥体神经元已被证明是脆弱的，而小型的局部回路神经元似乎对病理过程具有抗性。更重要的是，含有钙结合蛋白小白蛋白和钙结合蛋白的中间神经元对阿尔茨海默病中的神经变性特别具有抗性。我们使用针对钙结合蛋白钙视网膜蛋白的多克隆抗体，分析了在阿尔茨海默病中通常受损的两个新皮质区域中，含有这种蛋白的中间神经元亚群可能发生的变化。在额叶前皮质以及颞下皮质中，我们观察到与对照病例相比，阿尔茨海默病患者大脑中钙视网膜蛋白免疫反应性神经元的密度没有差异。此外，这些神经元的细胞形态在阿尔茨海默病病例中保存完好。这些数据表明，钙视网膜蛋白免疫反应性神经元与其他含钙结合蛋白的中间神经元一样，对阿尔茨海默病中的神经变性具有抗性。这些结果支持了这样一种观点，即阿尔茨海默病中的病理过程涉及具有特定形态和神经化学特征的特定细胞群体。此外，钙结合蛋白的存在可能赋予特定神经元亚群一定程度的抗变性能力。
