M. Overmyer et al., Astrogliosis and the ApoE genotype - An immunohistochemical study of postmortem human brain tissue, DEMENT G C, 10(4), 1999, pp. 252-257
Significant increased glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) expression was
seen in postmortem brain tissue from demented patients with Alzheimer's di
sease (AD) (73 cases, 61 females/12 males, mean age 84 +/- 9 years) compare
d to controls (22 cases, 10 females/12 males, mean age 78 +/- 9 years). In
demented patients, the GFAP expression, counts of AD lesions, senile/neurit
ic plaques (SP/NP) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) were higher in patient
s carrying the apolipoprotein E (ApoE) epsilon 4 allele compared to those w
ithout the ApoE epsilon 4 allele. The astrogliosis correlated significantly
with the counts of NFT in demented patients both with and without the ApoE
epsilon 4 allele, Furthermore, the astrogliosis correlated significantly w
ith the counts of SP/NP, but this correlation, however, was influenced by t
he ApoE epsilon 4 allele, being significant only in those cases without the
ApoE epsilon 4 allele. Our results demonstrate that not only the extent of
AD lesions and GFAP expression, but also the relationship between AD lesio
ns and the GFAP expression is influenced by the ApoE epsilon 4 allele.