Tau accumulation causes mitochondrial distribution deficits in neurons in a mouse model of tauopathy and in human Alzheimer's disease brain.

ABSTRACT: Neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), intracellular inclusions of abnormal fibrillar forms of microtubule associated protein tau, accumulate in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other tauopathies and are believed to cause neuronal dysfunction, but the mechanism of tau-mediated toxicity are uncertain. Tau overexpression in cell culture impairs localization and trafficking of organelles. Here we tested the hypothesis that, in the intact brain, changes in mitochondrial distribution occur secondary to pathological changes in tau. Array tomography, a high-resolution imaging technique, was used to examine mitochondria in the reversible transgenic (rTg)4510, a regulatable transgenic, mouse model and AD brain tissue. Mitochondrial distribution is progressively disrupted with age in rTg4510 brain, particularly

SUBMITTER: Kopeikina KJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3181340 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature