The mechanism of tau accumulation in the striatum of tauopathy

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K19757
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Psychiatric science
• Research Institution: Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science
• Principal Investigator: KAWAKAMI Ito 公益財団法人東京都医学総合研究所, 認知症・高次脳機能研究分野, 研究員 (60748838)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): AKIYAMA Haruhiko 公益財団法人東京都医学総合研究所, 認知症・高次脳機能研究分野, 研究員 (20231839)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: タウ / 神経原線維変化 / アルツハイマー病 / 神経原線維変化型老年期認知症 / 伝播 / 線条体 / 側坐核

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Tangle-predominant dementia (TPD) is characterized neuropathologically by numerous neurofibrillary tangles in the limbic areas with no or occasional senile plaques throughout the brain. I investigated the brain tissues from Alzheimer's disease（AD）, TPD and normal aged cases immunohistochemically. I used several antibodies including anti-tau antibodies in the experiments. As the results, in the striatum of TPD cases, tau deposit were only found in the region which receives fibers from hippocampus /limbic area. Otherwise, in the area of AD cases, the regions receiving fibers from neocortex show tau deposit besides the former region. This may support the idea that abnormal tau aggregation propagates via neural circuits.

Free Research Field

神経病理学、老年期精神医学