I. Alafuzoff et al., beta-amyloid load, astroglia and microglia in Alzheimer's disease: association with apoE genotype, ALZHEIM REP, 2(5), 1999, pp. 283-289
In addition to beta-amyloid (A beta) aggregates and neuronal degeneration s
een as neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), a glial response is a prominent patho
logical feature in Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this clinically and neuropa
thologically verified post-mortem material of 43 demented subjects we have
demonstrated that the presence of an apoE epsilon 4 allele cause a slight b
ut not significant increase in the neocortical A beta load, the number of G
FAP expressing astrocytes and HLA DR expressing microglia. A beta load corr
elated significantly with astrogliosis and the counts of NFT's correlated s
ignificantly with the number of activated microglia. Furthermore, the corre
lation between activated microglia and neuronal degeneration (NFT scores) w
as influenced by the apoE genotype since it was not present in individuals
carrying an apoE epsilon 4 allele. Moreover, multiple linear regression ana
lysis revealed a significant influence of the gender an microglial activati
on. Our results indicate that the glial reaction is indeed a phenomenon ass
ociated with the histopathological lesions of AD whereas the extent of the
microglia activation seems to be related not only to the neuronal degenerat
ion but also to the gender of the patient.