Anat Cell Biol.  2012 Mar;45(1):26-37. 10.5115/acb.2012.45.1.26.

Evidence of early involvement of apoptosis inducing factor-induced neuronal death in Alzheimer brain

• Lee JH
• Cheon YH
• Woo RS
• Song DY
• Moon C
• Baik TK

• KMID: 1447450
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5115/acb.2012.45.1.26

Abstract

Apoptosis inducing factor (AIF) has been proposed to act as a putative reactive oxygen species scavenger in mitochondria. When apoptotic cell death is triggered, AIF translocates to the nucleus, where it leads to nuclear chromatin condensation and large-scale DNA fragmentation which result in caspase-independent neuronal death. We performed this study to investigate the possibility that, in addition to caspase-dependent neuronal death, AIF induced neuronal death could be a cause of neuronal death in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We have found that AIF immunoreactivity was increased in the hippocampal pyramidal neurons in the Alzheimer brains compared to those of healthy, age-matched control brains. Nuclear AIF immunoreactivity was detected in the apoptotic pyramidal CA1 neurons at the early stage of AD and CA2 at the advanced stage. Nuclear AIF positive neurons were also observed in the amygdala and cholinergic neurons of the basal forebrain (BFCN) from the early stages of AD. The results of this study imply that AIF-induced apoptosis may contribute to neuronal death within the hippocampus, amygdala, and BFCN in early of AD.

Keyword

Alzheimer disease; Apoptosis inducing factor; Caspase-independent neuronal death; Human brain

MeSH Terms

Alzheimer Disease
Amygdala
Apoptosis
Apoptosis Inducing Factor
Brain
Cell Death
Cholinergic Neurons
Chromatin
DNA Fragmentation
Hippocampus
Mitochondria
Neurons
Prosencephalon
Reactive Oxygen Species
Apoptosis Inducing Factor
Chromatin
Reactive Oxygen Species