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Tau Biology pp 373–380Cite as

Tau Oligomers

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 1184))

Abstract

The accumulation of tau filaments in neurons is a pathological hallmark of various neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease. However, it is not the filamentous aggregates themselves, but non-filamentous tau species, tau oligomer, that is thought to be the culprit in tau-mediated neurodegeneration. The definition of and methodology for isolating tau oligomers vary among researchers. Here we describe how tau oligomers are identified, summarize the differences of tau oligomers among research groups, and discuss their hypothesized functions.

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Acknowledgement

The authors thank Dr. Gary Howard for editorial review. This research was partially supported by grants from the Cyclic Innovation for Clinical Empowerment (CiCLE) and the Acceleration Program for Intractable Diseases Research Utilizing Disease-specific iPS Cells from the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) and JSPS to SM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    Sumihiro Maeda

  2. Department of Life Science, Gakushuin University, Tokyo, Japan

    Akihiko Takashima

Authors
  1. Sumihiro Maeda
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  2. Akihiko Takashima
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Correspondence to Sumihiro Maeda .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Sciences, Gakushuin University, Tokyo, Japan

    Akihiko Takashima

  2. Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

    Benjamin Wolozin

  3. University of Lille, INSERM, CHU-Lille, Alzheimer & Tauopathies, LabEx DISTALZ, Lille, France

    Luc Buee

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Maeda, S., Takashima, A. (2019). Tau Oligomers. In: Takashima, A., Wolozin, B., Buee, L. (eds) Tau Biology. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1184. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9358-8_27

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