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Neuronal and glial tau-positive inclusions in diverse neurologic diseases share common phosphorylation characteristics

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Abstract

Tau accumulating as paired helical filaments (PHF) in Alzheimer's disease brain is considered to be abnormally phosphorylated on distinct sites. To compare the phosphorylation state of tau-positive neuronal inclusions among diverse neurologic diseases, we have probed these lesions with three well-defined PHF/tau monoclonals, C5, M4 and tau 1, that most likely recognize three proline-directed phosphorylation sites in PHF-tau. In Alzheimer's disease brain all three monoclonals intensely immunostained intracellular neurofibrillary tangles, neuropil threads, senile plaque neurites, and “pretangle neurons” in a phosphorylation-dependent manner. They also stained, in the same manner, Pick bodies in Pick's disease, and neurofibrillary tangles and neuropil threads in various tangle-forming neurologic diseases. In most of these diseases (including Pick's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, and Alzheimer's disease) astrocytes and oligodendrocytes were found to contain tau-positive inclusions which showed the same immunocytochemical characteristics. Thus, the widely occurring tau-positive inclusions share common phosphorylation characteristics irrespective of underlying diseases or cell types.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuropathology and Neuroscience, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyoku, 113, Tokyo, Japan

    T. Iwatsubo

  2. Department of Neuropathology, Institute for Brain Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyoku, 113, Tokyo, Japan

    M. Hasegawa & Y. Ihara

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  1. T. Iwatsubo
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  2. M. Hasegawa
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  3. Y. Ihara
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Additional information

Supported by Grants-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Reseach (no. 03102008) and for Scientific Research on Priority Areas (no. 05261203 and 05251205) from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Japan

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Iwatsubo, T., Hasegawa, M. & Ihara, Y. Neuronal and glial tau-positive inclusions in diverse neurologic diseases share common phosphorylation characteristics. Acta Neuropathol 88, 129–136 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00294505

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00294505

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