No influence of presenilin 1 I143Tand G384A mutations on endogenous tau phosphorylation in human and mouse neuroblastoma cells

Presenilin 1 (PSEN1) I143T and G384A mutations give rise to severe early-on set Alzheimer's disease in two extensively studied Belgian families. In the present study, we examined the effect of PSEN1 I143T and G384A mutations o n tau phosphorylation in human SH-SY5Y and mouse Neuro-2a neuroblastoma cel l lines that were transiently transfected with wild type (WT)or mutant PSEN 1. With a phosphorylation independent antibody, no alteration in the electr ophoretic mobility of tau was observed between wild type and mutant PSEN1 t ransfectants. Also, densitometric analysis of Tau1 immunoreactivity, charac teristic of unphosphorylated tau, demonstrated no significant differences b etween WT and mutant PSEN1 transfectants. Our data suggest that in the cell ular models we used, transient overexpression of I143T and G384A mutant PSE N1 does not lead to increased tau phosphorylation. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scienc e Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.