SELECTIVE LOSS OF CALBINDIN D28K-IMMUNOREACTIVE NEURONS IN THE CORTICAL LAYER-II IN BRAINS OF ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE - A MORPHOMETRIC STUDY

To investigate the relationship between neuronal death and intracellul ar calcium homeostasis in brains from patients with Alzheimer's diseas e (AD), we quantitatively analyzed morphological changes of calbindin- immunoreactive neurons. Neuronal counts were made in the autopsy brain s from 6 control and 6 AD patients. Calbindin-immunoreactive neurons w ere mainly distributed in cortical layer II and were selectively lost in the AD brains. Further, the number of calbindin-immunoreactive neur ons showed a negative correlation with age in the control group. These findings strongly suggest that age-related reduction of calbindin-imm unoreactive neurons may be exaggerated in AD brains and change in calc ium homeostasis may be involved in the pathogenesis of AD.