Apo E: caught inside the nerve cell.Over the past year, geneticists This is a list of people who have made notable contributions to genetics. The growth and development of genetics represents the work of many people. This list of geneticists is therefore by no means complete. Contributors of great distinction to genetics are not yet on the list. and epidemiologists have continued to build their case for the involvement of a lipidcarrying molecule called apolipoprotein E apolipoprotein E A 34-kD cholesterol-binding glycoprotein, which comprises 15% of VLDL; apoE maps to chromosome 19, is secreted by macrophages that mediate the uptake of lipoproteins–VLDL, HDL, LDL and cholesterol esters into cells via distinct binding (apo E) in Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (ăls`hī'mərz, ôls–), degenerative disease of nerve cells in the cerebral cortex that leads to atrophy of the brain and senile dementia. (SN: 1/1/94, p.8; 5/7/94, p.295). Critics have argued, however, that apo E does not get into nerve cells. Now, Allen D. Roses at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., has captured apo E on film at the scene of the crime, so to speak. Roses' team examined pieces of five temporal lobes right after surgeons had removed these tissues from patients with seizures. The researchers also studied autopsied brain tissue from one patient with Alzheimer's disease. They added antibodies designed to attach only to apo E molecules and then stained the tissue. Apo E linked to antibody showed up as dark spots. With both electron and light microscopes, the researchers saw some accumulation of apo E, which appeared as tiny clumps within the bodies of nerve cells called cortical cor·ti·cal adj. 1. Of, relating to, derived from, or consisting of cortex. 2. Of, relating to, associated with, or depending on the cerebral cortex. neurons. These cells are the ones most affected in Alzheimer's, Roses says. Nerve cells contained less apo E than other types of brain cells, the group will report in an upcoming JOURNAL OF NEUROPATHOLOGY neuropathology /neu·ro·pa·thol·o·gy/ (-pah-thol´ah-je) pathology of diseases of the nervous system. neu·ro·pa·thol·o·gy n. The study of diseases of the nervous system. AND EXPERIMENTAL NEUROLOGY. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion