Summary
The carboxyl-terminal amino acids 272–299-truncated apoE4 (Δ272–299) is the main fragments of apoE4 hydrolysate in neurons. The effects of truncated-ApoE4 (Δ272–299) overexpression on tau phosphorylation in cultured N2a cells were investigated. The truncated-apoE4 (Δ272–299) cDNA was subcloned into pEGFP-c3 to form recombinant pEGFP-T-apoE4. pEGFP-c3, pEGFP-T-apoE4 and pEGFP-apoE4 were transfected into N2a cells respectively by lipofectamine 2000 method. After 24–48 h, tau phosphorylation was detected by Western blot assay and glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) activity by using GSK-3 activity assay. The results showed that the overexpression of both full length-apoE4 and truncated apoE4 fragments in N2a cells induced a dramatic increase in phosphorylation of tau at Ser202 sites and the activation of GSK-3 as compared with untransfected cells, most significantly in the cells transfected with pEGFP-T-apoE4 (P<0.05). It as concluded that in vitro overexpression of truncated-ApoE4 (Δ272–299) can result in tau hyperphosphorylation in N2a cells by activating GSK-3, suggesting truncated-ApoE4 (Δ272–299) might contribute the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease.
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Zhou Jie, female, born in 1976, Lecturer, M. D., Ph. D.
This project was supported by two grants from National Sciences Foundation of China (No. 30470348 and No. 30570554).
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Jie, Z., Juan, C. & Youmei, F. Effect of truncated-ApoE4 overexpression on tau phosphorylation in cultured N2a cells. J. Huazhong Univ. Sci. Technol. [Med. Sci.] 26, 272–274 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02829548
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02829548