The cytoskeletal changes seen in brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease include neurofibrillary tangles, neuritic plaques, Hirano bodies, and granulovacuolar degeneration. Northern and slot blot analyses were used to investigate the expression of the genes coding for actin, tubulin, neurofilaments, and histone in brain tissue from Alzheimer's disease patients and normal aged controls. We found a marked decrease of 94% in the expression of the neurofilament gene coding for the medium size subunit (150 kDa) and a 73% decrease in the expression of the gene coding for the small subunit (68 kDa) in Alzheimer's disease patients as compared to controls. Expression of the other genes, such as actin and histone, did not show any significant difference. Expression of the gene coding for medium size, neurofilament gene was not decreased in other neurodegenerative diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson's disease. This abnormality in neurofilament gene expression may explain some of the pathologic features found in Alzheimer's disease patients.
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