engleski

Cell death in Alzheimer's disease

On the basis of in-situ end labeling, in vitro results and immunocytochemistry for apoptosis-related proteins, several authors have suggested that apoptosis occurs in Alzheimer's disease. However, the present investigations of our and many other laboratories found only necrotic morphology of ISEL- and TUNEL-positive neurons in Alzheimer's disease, which agrees with the known time kinetics of apoptotic cell death. As it has been calculated that apoptotic morphology is present for only a few hours in the brain, ranging from 3 to 72 h, should very large numbers of cells per thin section of a chronic disease like Alzheimer's be present, this would imply that the entire structure would be fully degenerated in days, which is very unlikely. This also suggest that not apoptosis, but necrosis and increased DNA vulnerability are major phenomena in postmortem Alzheimer's disease brain.

cell death; Alzheimer's disease; apoptosis; necrosis

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