| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000)
Fiscal Year 2000: ¥600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000)
Fiscal Year 1999: ¥1,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000)
|
|---|
| Research Abstract |
Hippocampal cortex (hippocampal formation and parahippocampal gyrus) is a key structure of the memory system and is most affected region in Alzheimer's disease (AD). To explore more fully the clinicopathological relationship between dementia symptoms such as memory disturbance and neuronal death via neurofibrillary degeneration in the hippocampal cortex in Alzheimer's disease, unaffected neurons, intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (i-NFTs) and extracellular NFTs (e-NFTs) in 22 patients with the different disease duration were morphometrically evaluated in 8 subdivisions of the hippocampal cortex, using the Gallyas hematoxylin-eosin stain. The subdivisions examined included CA1-4, prosubiculum (PRO), subiculum and presubiculum (PRE), parasubiculum (PARA) and the entorhinal cortex (ENT). Unaffected neuron density was significantly, inversely correlated with e-NFT density and with total NFT density in all subdivisions except for PRE in AD patients. Especially in CA2, CA1, PRO and ENT, there were strong correlations between the neuron density and these NFT densities. Both unaffected neuron and e-NFT densities in CA1 and ENT were significantly correlated with the disease duration. The i/e-NFT ratio, an index of the degree and/or rate of progress of neuronal death via neurofibrillary degeneration, showed the lowest value in ENT in AD patients. The findings suggest neuronal death via neurofibrillary degeneration starts earliest and/or most rapidly progresses in ENT.Furthermore, the i/e-NFT ratios in both ENT and CA1 were significantly correlated with the disease duration, suggesting that continuous neuronal death pattern in the two subdivisions parallels disease progression in AD.Neuronal death via neurofibrillary degeneration in ENT and CA1 in the hipocampal cortex may contribute to pathological substrate of memory disturbance in AD.
|
