A τ‐Related Protein of 130 kDa Is Present in Alzheimer Brain

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Abstract
Two abnormal entities of 69 and 130 kDa, immunologically related to the microtubule‐associated τ proteins, are present in the hippocampus and the frontal cortex of the Alzheimer brain, which contain a large number of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), but are absent in the cerebellum, which does not contain these structures. Epitope mapping with antibodies spanning domains present in the N‐terminal, middle, and C‐terminal τ sequence demonstrated that the 69‐ and 130‐kDa entities belong to the τ family. Both the 69‐ and the 130‐kDa proteins were found in an insoluble form and were the major τ species present in purified NFTs. A procedure was devised that allowed us to prepare from Alzheimer hippocampi two NFT fractions differing in size (20 and 3 μm), both of which contained the τ entities of 130 and 69 kDa.