BRAIN-DERIVED NEUROTROPHIC FACTOR IS REDUCED IN ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE

Alzheimer's disease may be due to a deficiency in neurotrophin protein or receptor expression. Consistent with this hypothesis, a reduction in BDNF mRNA expression has been observed in human post-mortem Alzheim er's disease hippocampi. To further investigate this observation, we e xamined whether the alteration in BDNF expression also occurred at the protein level in human post-mortem Alzheimer's disease hippocampi and temporal cortices using immunohistochemical techniques. We observed a reduction in the intensity and number of BDNF-immunoreactive cell bod ies within both the Alzheimer's disease hippocampus and temporal corte x when compared to normal tissue. These results support and extend pre vious findings that BDNF mRNA is reduced in the human Alzheimer's dise ase hippocampus and temporal cortex, and suggest that a loss of BDNF m ay contribute to the progressive atrophy of neurons in Alzheimer's dis ease. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.