Tau, ubiquitin, and alpha B-crystallin immunohistochemistry define the principal causes of degenerative frontotemporal dementia.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

We investigated the use of immunostaining with antibodies to tau, ubiquitin, and alpha B-crystallin in defining a protocol for the staged neuropathologic examination of brains from patients with a progressive frontotemporal dementia.

DESIGN:

Brains obtained from 50 patients dying with the clinical diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia were examined histopathologically to define pathologic distinctions.

SETTING:

Two university hospital neuropathology departments.

RESULTS:

Anti-tau immunostaining defined corticobasal degeneration, Alzheimer's disease, and Pick's disease; antiubiquitin defined motor neuron disease with dementia. The remaining brains have frontal lobe degeneration: the use of alpha B-crystallin immunostaining, on these, to detect ballooned neurons may help to define two groups of patients, one of which we believe may represent a variant of Pick's disease.

CONCLUSION:

These findings indicate that immunostaining with these antibodies is essential for the evaluation of frontal dementia.

• Authors: P N Cooper, M Jackson, G Lennox, J Lowe, D M Mann
• Journal: Archives of neurology (Arch Neurol) Vol. 52 Issue 10 Pg. 1011-5 (Oct 1995) ISSN: 0003-9942 [Print] United States
• PMID: 7575218 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Antibodies
• Crystallins
• Ubiquitins
• tau Proteins

Topics

• Antibodies (analysis)
• Crystallins (analysis)
• Dementia (etiology, metabolism, pathology)
• Frontal Lobe (metabolism, pathology)
• Humans
• Immunohistochemistry
• Temporal Lobe (metabolism, pathology)
• Ubiquitins (analysis)
• tau Proteins (analysis)