Article Text
Abstract
Aims This study was designed to explore the expression and distribution of silent information regulator 1 (SIRT1) and superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD-1) in various regions of the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), as well as to assess potential correlations between the levels of these proteins and also between these proteins and the Braak stage of AD.
Methods In the temporal and frontal cortices, hippocampus and cerebellum of 10 patients with AD and 10 age-matched control subjects, expression of SIRT1 and SOD-1, together with histopathology, were assessed by immunohistochemical and immunofluorescent stainings. Relationships between variables were examined with the Pearson correlation test.
Results The numbers of both SIRT1-positive and SOD-1-positive neurons and integrated optical density of immunohistochemical staining for these proteins in the temporal and frontal cortices, and hippocampus of patients with AD were significantly decreased than those in corresponding controls. In the case of the cerebellum, very weak expression of SIRT1 and obvious expression of SOD-1 were observed in granule cells, with no significant difference between AD and the control group. Interestingly, the protein levels between SIRT1 and SOD-1, as well as the level of SIRT1 or SOD-1 and Braak stage, were significantly correlated in neurons in all regions of the AD brains investigated except for the cerebellum.
Conclusions These findings indicate that the reduced level of SIRT1 in the brains of patients with AD may be related to the decline in SOD-1 and neuropathological changes of this disorder.
- Alzheimer's disease
- brains
- patient
- SIRT1
- SOD-1
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Footnotes
Handling editor Cheok Soon Lee.
Contributors KC carried out the whole experiment procedure, collected data and wrote the manuscript. Y-TD, JX and YX obtained data. WH and HS performed data calculation and analysis. Z-ZG contributed to the research project, designed the study and modified the manuscript. All authors reviewed the manuscript before submission. All the authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
Funding This work was supported financially by grants from the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (81760571); the Foundation of the Ministry of Education of P. R. China (IRT13058); and the Scientific Foundations in Guizhou Province of China ([2014]06, [2014]4010, [2014]6008 and [2016]161). The postmortem human brain samples were unselfishly provided by the Netherlands Brain Bank (Amsterdam, the Netherlands).
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent Obtained.
Ethics approval The Ethics Committee of Guizhou Medical University, China.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.