Abstract
Previous studies demonstrated the specific association of hems oxygenase (HO)-1 protein to the neurofibrillary pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we used reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction methods to show the increased expression of HO-1 but not HO-2 mRNA transcripts in cerebral cortex and cerebral vessels from subjects with AD compared with age-matched non-AD controls. Neither the HO-1 nor the HO-2 mRNA level was altered in the cerebellum, a brain region usually spared from the pathological alterations of AD. There was no clear evidence that the expression of HO-1 in these tissues was related to postmortem interval, cause of death, or the age of the subjects studied. Using immunoblotting methods, we further showed that HO-1 protein content was increased in neocortical and vascular samples from AD subjects compared with controls. Our findings suggest the specific induction of HO-1 mRNA and protein in the cerebral cortex and cerebral vessels but not HO-2 mRNA or protein in association with the pathological lesions of the disease.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1399-1402 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Journal of Neurochemistry |
| Volume | 65 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| State | Published - Sep 1995 |
Keywords
- Alzheimer's disease
- Amyloid β-protein
- Antioxidants
- Cerebral vessels
- Heat-shock proteins
- Heme oxygenase-1
- Hems oxygenase-2
- Stress proteins