Elsevier

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 97, Issues 1–2, 13 February 1989, Pages 232-238
Neuroscience Letters

Down patients: Extracellular preamyloid deposits precede neuritic degeneration and senile plaques

https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3940(89)90169-9Get rights and content

Abstract

Using anti-SP28 (a polyclonal antibody to a 28 residue synthetic peptide homologous to the NH2-terminal region of the Alzheimer amyloid β-protein) to investigate the cerebral cortex of 6 Down patients aged 6–55 y, we found that, besides senile plaques and congophilic vessels, extracellular deposits unrelated to degenerating neurites, tangle-bearing neurons or congophilic vessels were labelled. These deposits were similar to the extracellular deposits previously observed in the cerebral cortex of Alzheimer patients and non-demented individuals. The material accumulated in the deposits did not react with Congo red, thioflavine S or, on some occasions, silver salts and therefore might have been constituted by β-protein precursors lacking the molecular conformation of amyloid fibrils. Age-related analysis of the cortical lesions in Down patients suggested that such extracellular deposits precede degenerating neurites and evolve into senile plaques.

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Preliminary reports were presented at the Fifth Paulo Foundation International Symposium on Pathobiology of Alzheimer's Disease (Hanaasari, Espoo, Finland) June 17–19, 1988 and the First International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders (Las Vegas, Nevada, USA), September 6–9, 1988.

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