Abstract
Recent studies have shown that the process underlying β/A4 deposition in AD is not restricted to the brain. Soluble β/A4 species have been isolated and quantified in the cerebrospinal fluid and plasma.1 Small deposits immunopositive for β/A4 have been detected in and around selected blood vessels of the skin, intestine and certain other tissues from some patients with AD and Down’s syndrome (DS) as well as in a proportion of aged normal subjects.2 Such observations in nonneuronal tissues might provide clues to pathogenetic mechanisms and treatment of AD and could prove useful in confirming the clinical diagnosis of AD. Diagnostic markers are urgently needed in AD. This study was therefore aimed at investigating the usefulness of β/A4 immunostaining of skin biopsies to diagnose AD. Preliminary results of β/A4 immunoreactivity in skin in aging and dementia have been presented as a letter elsewhere.3 In the present work, the correlation between β/A4 immunopositivity in lifetime skin biopsy and brain of neuropathologically confirmed AD patients was examined. Further, the β/A4 immunopositivity in skin of DS patients and young controls was studied.
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Heinonen, O. et al. (1995). β-Amyloid-Protein Immunoreactivity in Skin is Not a Reliable Marker of Alzheimer’s Disease: An Autopsy Controlled Study. In: Hanin, I., Yoshida, M., Fisher, A. (eds) Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases. Advances in Behavioral Biology, vol 44. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9145-7_24
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9145-7_24
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