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Differential phosphorylation of tau proteins during kitten brain development and Alzheimer's disease

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Journal of Neurocytology

Abstract

Differential distribution and phosphorylation of tau proteins were studied in developing kitten brain by using several antibodies, and was compared to phosphorylation in Alzheimer's disease. Several antibodies demonstrated the presence of phosphorylated tau proteins during kitten brain development and identified pathological structures in human brain tissue. Antibody AD2, recognized tau in kittens and adult cats, but reacted in Alzheimer's tissue only with a pathological tau form. Antibody AT8 was prominent in developing kitten neurons and was found in axons and dendrites. After the first postnatal month this phosphorylation type disappeared from axons. Furthermore, dephosphorylation of kitten tau with alkaline phosphatase abolished immunoreactivity of AT8, but not that of AD2, pointing to a protection of the AD2 epitope in cats. Tau proteins during early cat brain development are phosphorylated at several sites that are also phosphorylated in paired helical filaments during Alzheimer's disease. In either event, phosphorylation of tau may play a crucial role to modulate microtubule dynamics, contributing to increased microtubule instability and promoting growth of processes during neuronal development or changing dynamic properties of the cytoskeleton and contributing to the formation of pathological structures in neurodegenerative diseases.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Biologie Cellulaire et de Morphologie, Université de Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 9, 1005, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Beat Michel Riederer

  2. Institut de Biotechnologie en Immunoanalyse et Pharmacologie, UFR Pharmacie, CNRS UMR5094, 15 Av. Charles Flahault, 34060, Montpellier Cedex 2, France

    Chantal Mourton-Gilles

  3. Novartis, 4000, Basel, Switzerland

    Peter Frey

  4. INSERM U422, Place de Verdun, 59045, Lille, France

    Andre Delacourte

  5. Institut für Pathologie, Schönbeinstr, 40, 4000, Basel, Switzerland

    Alphonse Probst

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  1. Beat Michel Riederer
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  2. Chantal Mourton-Gilles
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  4. Andre Delacourte
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  5. Alphonse Probst
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Correspondence to Beat Michel Riederer.

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Riederer, B.M., Mourton-Gilles, C., Frey, P. et al. Differential phosphorylation of tau proteins during kitten brain development and Alzheimer's disease. J Neurocytol 30, 145–158 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011991207942

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