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Immunohistochemical study of microtubule-associated protein 2 and ubiquitin in chronically aluminum-intoxicated rabbit brain

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Summary

Experimental neurofibrillary change was produced in rabbit brains by daily subcutaneous aluminum tartrate injection for 40 days. The production of experimental neurofibrillary changes was confirmed by immunostaining with antibodies against neurofilament triplet proteins and the brain tissue was studied immunohistochemically with antibodies against microtubule-associated protein (MAP) 2 and ubiquitin. The hippocampal neurons of the chronically aluminum-intoxicated rabbit brain showed diminished staining of dendrites by anti-MAP2 antibody. The length of anti-MAP2-positive dendrites in hippocampus was significantly shorter than that of the control brain. In the cortex somata of a subset of pyramidal neurons were intensively stained by anti-MAP2 antibody, while the MAP2 immunoreactivity of distal dendrites was diminished. The immunostaining by anti-ubiquitin antibody revealed the positive staining of the neurons bearing experimental neurofibrillary changes in the lower brain stem nuclei. It is speculated that MAP2 dislocation and ubiquitination are accompanying phenomena of the production of experimental neurofibrillary changes in chronically aluminum-intoxicated rabbit brains.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuropsychiatry, Osaka University Medical School, 1-1-50 Fukushima, Fukushima-ku, 553, Osaka, Japan

    M. Takeda, Y. Tatebayashi, S. Tanimukai, Y. Nakamura, T. Tanaka & T. Nishimura

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  1. M. Takeda
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  2. Y. Tatebayashi
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  3. S. Tanimukai
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  4. Y. Nakamura
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  5. T. Tanaka
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  6. T. Nishimura
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Supported in part by grants from Ministry of Education of Japan and the Sandoz Gerontological Research Foundation

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Takeda, M., Tatebayashi, Y., Tanimukai, S. et al. Immunohistochemical study of microtubule-associated protein 2 and ubiquitin in chronically aluminum-intoxicated rabbit brain. Acta Neuropathol 82, 346–352 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00296545

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00296545

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