Archive for February 5th, 2010
Astrocytes are fundamental for brain homeostasis and are at the fulcrum of neurological diseases including Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we monitored changes in astroglia morphology throughout the age-dependent progression of AD. We used an immunohistochemical approach that allows us to determine the domain of glial cytoskeleton, by measuring the surface, volume, and the relationship between astrocytes and neuritic plaques. We investigated astroglia in the hippocampus of a triple transgenic mouse model of AD (3xTg-AD) that mimics the progression of the human disease. The numerical density of astrocytes is affected neither by AD nor by age. We found reduction of surface and volume of GFAP profiles from early ages (6 months; 43.84 and 52.76%, respectively), persisting at 12 (40.73 and 45.3...
Authors: Jiang C, Feng Y, Huang X, Xu Y, Zhang Y, Zhou N, Shen X, Chen K, Jiang H, Liu D
Abeta(1-42) is the proteolytic cleavage product of cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein by beta- and gamma-secretases. The aggregation of Abeta(1-42) plays a causative role in the development of Alzheimer's disease. To lock Abeta(1-42) in a homogenous state, we embedded the Abeta(1-42) sequence in an unstructured region of Bcl-x(L). Both the N-terminus and the C-terminus of Abeta(1-42) were constrained in the disordered region, whereas the conjunction did not introduce any folding to Abeta(1-42) but maintained the sequence as a monomer in solution. With Bcl-x(L)-Abeta(42), we developed an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to compare the affinity of compounds for monomeric Abeta(1-42). Bcl-x(L)...
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Age is the largest risk factor for the development and progression of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Ageing affects many cellular processes that predispose to neurodegeneration, and age-related changes in cellular function predispose to the pathogenesis of PD. The accumulation of age-related somatic damage combined with a failure of compensatory mechanisms may lead to an acceleration of PD with age. The formation of Lewy bodies may represent a marker for protective mechanisms against age-related dysfunction and degeneration of the nervous system. Mild parkinsonian signs may be present in older people, which are associated with reduced function. These may be due to age-related decline in dopaminergic activity, incidental Lewy body disease, degenerative pathologies (early PD and Alzheimer&r...
The University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging and the African-American Dementia Outreach Partnership will host a seminar on "Healthy Aging: Mind, Body and Spirit." The seminar begins at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 25, at the North Lexington Family YMCA, 381 W. Loudon Ave. in Lexington. Increasing awareness of this devastating disease of the brain is an important part of changing community behavior," said Deborah Danner, director of education for the UK Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Alzheimers Disease Center. "Presentations in the community such as this one at the YMCA promote lifestyle modifications that increase the likelihood of maintaining a healthy brain. (Source: UK College of Medicine News)
In this study we have profiled the free sterol content of cerebrospinal fluid by a combination of charge tagging and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Surprisingly, the most abundant cholesterol metabolites were found to be C27 and C24 intermediates of the bile acid biosynthetic pathways with structures corresponding to 7-hydroxy-3-oxocholest-4-en-26-oic acid (7.170 ± 2.826 ng/ml, mean ± S.D., six subjects), 3β-hydroxycholest-5-en-26-oic acid (0.416 ± 0.193 ng/ml), 7,x-dihydroxy-3-oxocholest-4-en-26-oic acid (1.330 ± 0.543 ng/ml), and 7-hydroxy-3-oxochol-4-en-24-oic acid (0.172 ± 0.085 ng/ml), and the C26 sterol 7-hydroxy-26-norcholest-4-ene-3,x-dione (0.204 ± 0.083 ng/ml), where x is an oxygen atom either on the CD rings or more...
