Showing papers by "John Q. Trojanowski published in 1989"

Distribution of tau proteins in the normal human central and peripheral nervous system.

Abstract: In human brain, antibodies to tau proteins primarily label abnormal rather than normal structures. This might reflect altered immunoreactivity owing to post-mortem proteolysis, disease, or species differences. We addressed this issue by comparing the distribution of tau in bovine and human post-mortem nervous system tissues and in human neural cell lines, using new monoclonal antibodies (MAb) specific for phosphate-independent epitopes in bovine and human tau. In neocortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum, immunoreactive tau was widely expressed but segregated into the axon-neuropil domain of neurons. In spinal cord and peripheral nervous system, tau immunoreactivity was similarly segregated but less abundant. No immunoreactive tau was detected with our MAb in glial cells or in human neural cell lines that express neurofilament or glial filament proteins. Post-mortem delays in tissue denaturation of less than 24 hr did not affect the distribution of tau, but the method used to denature tissues did, i.e., microwave treatment preserved tau immunoreactivity more effectively than chemical fixatives such as Bouin's solution, and formalin-fixed tissue samples reacted poorly with our anti-tau MAb. We conclude that the distribution of tau proteins in human nervous system is similar to that described in perfusion-fixed experimental animals, and that visualization of normal immunoreactive tau in human tissues is critically dependent on the procedures used to denature post-mortem tissue samples. Furthermore, microenvironmental factors in different neuroanatomical sites may affect the regional expression of tau.

Postmortem analysis of adrenal-medulla-to-caudate autograft in a patient with Parkinson's disease.

Abstract: A 53-year-old physician who had a 10-year history of progressive idiopathic parkinsonism survived for 4 months after an autologous adrenal-medulla-to-right-caudate autograft but he received little clinical benefit. A small number of chromaffin cells in the graft site survived; they expressed neurofilament proteins and chromogranin A, but scant tyrosine hydroxylase. The striatum on both sides showed almost complete loss of [3H]mazindol binding to dopamine-uptake sites; the density of dopamine receptors was decreased adjacent to the transplant but increased rostral to the transplant. These results demonstrate that autografted chromaffin cells can survive for 4 months after transplantation and that related changes in dopamine receptors can be quantified.

Phenotypic analysis of four human medulloblastoma cell lines and transplantable xenografts.

Abstract: An extensive panel of monoclonal antibodies (MAb) and monospecific antisera reactive against neuroectodermal-, neuronal-, glial-, and lymphoid-associated antigens, extracellular matrix, HLA, and cell-surface receptors was used to characterize the phenotype of four continuous, karyotypically distinct medulloblastoma cell lines and transplantable xenografts. All four cell lines demonstrated significant reactivity with anti-neuroectodermal-associated MAb. No apparent pattern of reactivity with anti-lymphoid MAb was seen; notably, there was a uniform absence of detectable Thy-1. Review of the complete antibody reactivity profile revealed a dichotomy between lines TE-671 and Daoy and lines D283 Med and D341 Med, which have been previously shown to express neurofilament protein in culture and xenografts, and to exhibit neuroblastic morphological features in biopsy and xenograft tissue sections. TE-671 and Daoy reacted with the MAb directed against tenascin, epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor, HLA-A,B epitopes, beta 2-microglobulin and 5/8 of the glioma-associated antigens, but did not react with the anti-neurofilament protein (NFP) MAb. D283 Med and D341 Med expressed NFP but did not react with MAb against tenascin, EGF receptor, HLA-A,B epitopes, beta 2-microglobulin or 6/8 and 7/8 (respectively) of the glioma-associated antigens. The observed phenotypic differences provide a conceptual framework for investigating basic differences in the biological behavior of medulloblastoma. Moreover, the subdivisions can be evaluated for prospective value in tissue diagnosis, cerebrospinal fluid cytology and antibody-mediated imaging and therapy.

Monoclonal antibodies to a synthetic peptide homologous with the first 28 amino acids of Alzheimer's disease beta-protein recognize amyloid and diverse glial and neuronal cell types in the central nervous system.

Abstract: Studies were conducted to identify neural cells that synthesize and/or process cerebral amyloid using antisera and monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) raised to synthetic peptides based on the first 28 amino acids of the amyloid beta-protein. Using rabbit and mouse antisera, and 7 MAbs, sections of neocortex, hippocampus, cerebellum, and spinal cord from Alzheimer's disease (AD), Down's syndrome (DS), and control cases were probed. The antibodies produced 3 distinct immunohistochemical patterns: 1) staining restricted to neuritic plaque and blood vessel amyloid only (antisera, 1 of 7 MAbs); 2) immunoreactivity confined to cytoplasmic granules in diverse neuronal, glial (astrocytes, ependyma) and other (leptomeningeal, perivascular, choroid plexus) cells (1 of 7 MAbs); 3) a summation of these 2 patterns (5 of 7 MAbs). Controls resembled the AD and DS cases, except for a paucity of immunoreactive plaques and blood vessels in the controls. Immunoreactivity was reduced or removed by the peptides used to produce these antibodies. Formalin- and Bouins-fixed tissues reacted weakly or not at all with these antibodies while microwave denatured tissues reacted very intensely with them. Specific staining was enhanced by treatment of the tissue sections with Triton X-100, NaDodSO4, or trypsin. These studies significantly extend earlier studies that localized amyloid beta-protein precursor mRNA to human brain cells, and they suggest that the beta-protein, its precursor, and/or fragments thereof may exist in diverse neural cell types in AD, DS, and control brains.

Phosphate-dependent and independent neurofilament protein epitopes are expressed throughout the cell cycle in human medulloblastoma (D283 MED) cells.

Abstract: The low (NF-L) and middle (NF-M) molecular weight (Mr) neurofilament (NF) subunits are expressed before the high (NF-H) Mr NF subunit in embryonic neurons. Thereafter, NF-M attains its mature state of phosphorylation more rapidly than does NF-H. However, little is known about NF subunit expression during cell division. A rapidly dividing medulloblastoma cell line (D283 MED), therefore, was examined using flow cytometry, immunochemistry, and a large panel of NF subunit-specific polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies. Many of the monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) distinguished NF-H and NF-M in different states of phosphorylation. By flow cytometry, more than 90% of the D283 cells expressed NF-H and NF-M in different states of phosphorylation, and an antiserum specific for the carboxy terminus of NF-L labeled more than 60% of these cells. Furthermore, the fluorescence intensity produced by MAbs that detected phosphorylated versus nonphosphorylated NF-H and/or NF-M epitopes, appropriately decreased or increased, respectively, by preincubating the D283 cells with alkaline phosphatase. In contrast, cell staining with antibodies specific for phosphate-independent NF protein epitopes did not change substantially as a result of enzymatic dephosphorylation. These results agreed closely with those obtained from studies of normal human spinal cord NF extracts. However, NF-H, NF-M, and NF-L were expressed throughout the cell cycle in dual parameter studies of D283 cells labeled with an antibody and propidium iodide. Nevertheless, reductions in the fluorescence intensity produced with most of these antibodies late in the cell cycle suggested that NF proteins may be subject to modifications in their structure or accessibility to antibody probes during different phases of the cell cycle. These data led to the conclusion that NF subunits are expressed throughout the cell cycle in cultured human medulloblastoma cells, but that subtle changes in the immunoreactivity of these proteins occur during cell division.

Chondroid chordoma: a low-grade chondrosarcoma and its differential diagnosis.

Abstract: Controversy has surrounded chondroid chordoma ever since it was first described as a distinct clinical and pathological entity (Heffelfinger et al. 1973). For, although lesions called chondroid chordoma clearly behave in a far more benign fashion than typical chordoma, the histogenesis of chondroid chordoma has been uncertain. Furthermore, the pathological features distinguishing it from related tumors have been blurred by its supposed bimorphic histology resembling both chordoma and chondrosarcoma. In this chapter, we will review the entities confused with chondroid chordoma from the clinicopathological and histogenetic viewpoints. We will also detail our own immunohistochemical analysis which indicated chondroid chordoma to be a form of low-grade chondrosarcoma.

Remarkable intron and exon sequence conservation in human and mouse homeobox Hox 1.3 genes.

Abstract: A high degree of conservation exists between the Hox 1.3 homeobox genes of mice and humans. The two genes occupy the same relative positions in their respective Hox 1 gene clusters, they show extensive sequence similarities in their coding and noncoding portions, and both are transcribed into multiple transcripts of similar sizes. The predicted human Hox 1.3 protein differs from its murine counterpart in only 7 of 270 amino acids. The sequence similarity in the 250 base pairs upstream of the initiation codon is 98%, the similarity between the two introns, both 960 base pairs long, is 72%, and the similarity in the 3' noncoding region from termination codon to polyadenylation signal is 90%. Both mouse and human Hox 1.3 introns contain a sequence with homology to a mating-type-controlled cis element of the yeast Ty1 transposon. DNA-binding studies with a recombinant mouse Hox 1.3 protein identified two binding sites in the intron, both of which were within the region of shared homology with this Ty1 cis element.

Selective expression of epitopes in multiphosphorylation repeats of the high and middle molecular weight neurofilament proteins in Alzheimer neurofibrillary tangles.

Abstract: Here we review our recent “epitope analyses” of a few of the fibrous intraneuronal inclusions that are distinctive hallmarks of human neurodenerative conditions using a large library of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) raised to normal neuronal cytoskeletal proteins.Analyses of the low (NF-L), middle (NF-M), and high (NF-M), and high (NF-H) molecular weight neurofilament (NF) proteins with >500 MAbs enumerated epitopes shared by NF proteins and the intraneuronal neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) that occur in the hippocampus and brainstem of Alzheimer's disease (AD) subjects. We identified the NF-H multi-phosphorylation repeat domain, i.e. repeats of Lys-Ser-Pro-X (where X is a small uncharged amino acid and Ser acts as a phosphate acceptor), as the determinant recognized by 15/16 MAbs that detected NFTs in sections of AD hippocampus, and 11 of the same 16 MAbs recognised NF-M multi-phosphorylation repeats. Further, the antigen binding regions of these MAbs were shown to comprise 13 separate classes based on the...

HIV Infection of Neural Cells

Abstract: The type 1 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1 ), the primary etiologic agent of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), has been implicated in AIDSassociated en~ephalopathy.’,~.’,~ The pathogenesis of this encephalopathy is unclear. Results from in situ hybridization with genomic probes suggest that cells of the macrophage/microglial lineage actively produce HIV within the central nervous system.9.14 However, a number of investigators have also identified glial and endothelial cells as HIV-infected, using both in situ hybridization and antigen detection techniques.” Using a cell culture model, we have attempted to define the nature of the HIV neural cell infection in terms of entry pathway, latency, and induction of viral replication. Several cell lines and primary cell cultures representing distinct cell types of central nervous system (CNS) origin, namely, choroid plexus, gliomas, and medulloblastomas (MED) were infected with HIV-lIIIB (TABLE 1). To assess whether a specific cell type or cell surface molecule was associated with infection, we screened cells of different origin that expressed a variety of internal and surface markers. Characteristics including the cell-surface expression of histocompatibility antigens or the expression of lymphoid antigens like CD4 could not be correlated with HIV-1 infectability. Characteristics defining neural cell types, like the presence of glial fibrillary acidic protein or neurofilament proteins, also showed no correlation with infectability . As TABLE 1 indicates, both “neuronal”, and “glial” cells were infectable, and choroid plexus fibroblasts were also capable of harboring virus which could be rescued. All infectable CNS-derived cells used, except MED 341, produced latent viral infections detectable only by cocultivation with an indicator, CD4-positive cell line, SUP-