Reduced Proteins in Temporal Cortex in Alzheimer's Disease: An Electrophoretic Study

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Abstract
Cytoplasmic and pellet fractions from postmortem temporal cortex from 8 cases of neuropathologically confirmed Alzheimer''s disease, 1 case of cerebrovascular dementia and 5 controls were examined by sodium dodecylsulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. No differences were observed in the cytoplasmic proteins from the 5 controls and the case of cerebrovascular dementia. In 5 cases of Alzheimer''s disease with neuron loss, there was a major loss of a cytoplasmic 55,000-dalton protein identified as tubulin and variable reductions in cytoplasmic proteins of MW of 28,000, 30,000, 92,000 and 200,000 daltons. Three cases of Alzheimer''s disease had no detectable neuron loss; 2 of these cases had protein patterns indistinguishable from the controls and 1 showed some reduction in soluble tubulin only. Apparently, decreases of particular proteins in the temporal cortex in Alzheimer''s disease may be associated with neuron loss.