EXPRESSION OF FOS, JUN, AND KROX FAMILY PROTEINS IN ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE

Apoptosis is an active process of cell death characterized by distinct morphological features and is often the end result of a genetic progr am of events, i.e., programmed cell death (PCD). There is growing evid ence supporting a role for apoptosis and/or PCD in Alzheimer's disease (AD), based on DNA fragmentation studies and recent findings of incre ased levels of inducible transcription factors (ITFs) such as c-Jun in AD brains, We have characterized the expression of a large range of I TFs (e-Fos, Fos B, Fos-related antigens, c-Jun, Jun B, Jun D, Krox20, and krox24) using multiple antisera in AD postmortem hippocampi and co mpared this with human control hippocampi as well as Huntington's dise ase hippocampi and human epilepsy biopsy tissue, We found little evide nce of nuclear expression of any ITF except c-Jun in the human postmor tem tissue, compared with nuclear staining in biopsy tissue. We found some evidence for increased levels of c-Jun and Krox24 protein and kro x24 mRNA in the CA1 region of AD hippocampi, suggesting that PCD may b e involved in the pathogenesis of AD. In general, staining characteris tics of ITF's varied with different antisera directed against the same protein, indicating the need for caution when interpreting results. ( C) 1997 Academic Press.