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New Concepts in Alzheimer’s Disease pp 35–52Cite as

The Neuronal Cytoskeleton and Neurofibrillary Tangles

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Abstract

Dementia of the Alzheimer type, or Alzheimer’s disease, has a characteristic brain histopathology comprising neurofibrillary tangles, senile neuritic plaques, granulovacuolar bodies and Hirano bodies. A correlation between the number of tangles, the extent of the cholinergic deficit and the degree of dementia has been found (Wilcock et al., 1982). Tangles are composed of bundles of 10–13 nm filaments which appear to be twisted about each other in pairs with a crossover roughly every 80 nm; these filaments are known as paired helical filaments (PHFs) (Kidd, 1963; Wisniewski et al., 1976). The tangles are present in, and appear to fill, affected neuronal perikarya of the hippocampus and other cortical and subcortical areas but the PHFs are also found as small aggregates in the swollen neurites present in the periphery of the senile plaques (Kidd, 1963, 1964; Terry et al., 1964; Gonatas et al., 1967).

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Authors
  1. B. H. Anderton
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  2. J.-P. Brion
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  3. J. Flament-Durand
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  4. M. C. Haugh
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  5. J. Kahn
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  6. C. C. J. Miller
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  7. A. Probst
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  8. J. Ulrich
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Département de Pharmacologie Biochimique, Centre de Recherche Pierre Fabre, Avenue Jean Moulin 17, 81100, Castres Cédex, France

    M. Briley

  2. Département de Pharmacologie, Centre Médical Universitaire, 1211, Geneva, Switzerland

    A. Kato

  3. Laboratoire de Pharmacologie et de Toxicologie Fondamentales, Route de Narbonne 205, 31400, Toulouse, France

    M. Weber

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© 1986 The Editors and the Contributors

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Anderton, B.H. et al. (1986). The Neuronal Cytoskeleton and Neurofibrillary Tangles. In: Briley, M., Kato, A., Weber, M. (eds) New Concepts in Alzheimer’s Disease. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08639-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08639-9_4

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-08641-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-08639-9

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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