The relationship between psychiatric and behavioral pathophysiology in argyrophilic grain disease and progressive supranuclear palsy: a clinicopathological study

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K07559
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 52030:Psychiatry-related
• Research Institution: Okayama University
• Principal Investigator: YOKOTA OSAMU 岡山大学, 医学部, 客員研究員 (60379732)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 寺田 整司 岡山大学, 医歯薬学総合研究科, 准教授 (20332794)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: タウ / 嗜銀顆粒 / Granular fuzzy astrocyte / PART / PSP / Alzheimer's disease

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We immunohistochemically examined the frontal cortex, caudate nucleus, putamen, and amygdala in 105 cases including argyrophilic grain disease cases (AGD, N=26), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP, N=10), Alzheimer's disease (AD, N=20), primary age-related tauopathy cases (PART, N=18) to clarify the distribution patterns of GFAs and the impacts of major pathological factors and age on GFA formation. Amygdala-predominant distribution of GFA was found in AGD and PART cases, frontal and striatum-predominant pattern was found in PSP, and striatum-predominant pattern was noted in AD cases. Ordered logistic regression analyses using all cases demonstrated that the strongest independent factor of GFA formation in the frontal cortex and striatum was the diagnosis of PSP, while that in the amygdala was AGD. Given these findings, AGD, PSP, AD, and PART cases may show distinct distributions of GFAs, which may provide clues to predict the underlying processes of primary tauopathies.

Free Research Field

老年精神医学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

GFAは様々なタウオパチーに出現する一方，背景にある疾患より特徴的な分布を呈することが明らかとなった．GFAはAGDやPSPといったタウオパチーの早期病変の側面がある可能性があるため，早期の病態，臨床像の解析，さらに早期の治療介入にこの知見が役立つと考えられた．