Category: Neurodegenerative Disease (e.g. MS, Parkinson's disease); Brain Injury; Cross-Cutting
Objective :
Ourselves and others have previously shown the importance of mCRP in the induction of inflammation and in addition, the prevalence of the monomeric C-reactive protein (mCRP) form in the brains of individuals with dementia, after ischaemic stroke and following other brains vascular damage or degeneration.
Design :
We carried out a simple IHC study on a small cohort of brain samples, using a monoclonal (8C10 clone) highly specific anti-mCRP antibody to investigate its expression in vascular regions of damage highlighting the associated tissue morphology.
Setting : Alzheimer's tissue (post mortem) from 10 patients was obtained from the Brain Bank in Bristol (UK). The studyy was conducted at the Manchester Metropolitan University.
Participants (or Animals, Specimens, Cadavers) :
Since neuroinflammation may be a key trigger/cause of later dementia, here we carried out a simple IHC study on a small cohort of brain samples, using a monoclonal (8C10 clone) highly specific anti-mCRP antibody to investigate its expression in vascular regions of damage highlighting the associated tissue morphology.
Interventions : Samples were dissected into 2 mm diameter pieces and either frozen in liquid nitrogen at -70°or fixed in 10% buffered saline prior to paraffin embedding. They were categorized into infarcted, peri-infarcted and normal looking unaffected tissue. Tissue from the contralateral hemisphere served as a control.
Main Outcome Measure(s) : We analyzed specifically the localization of mCRP within vascular regions of the brain.
Results :
We showed that mCRP was present in specific brain regions with medium-sized cerebral vessels showing high intraluminal content that was associated with leakage into the local tissue. Where this occurred, cells with the morphology of macrophages and glia, as well as smaller microvessels became mCRP-positive showing evidence of a perpetuation of inflammation
Conclusions :
In conclusion, vascular injury or leakage from any cause appears to be associated with mCRP accumulation and leakage into brain tissue and this could be a critical element associated with enhanced neuroinflammation and later neurodegeneration and dementia.
Raid Al Baradie
– Associate Professor, Medical Lab Department, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Majmaah University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Al Majmaah, Al Qasim.png "Fuzail Ahmad photo")
Fuzail Ahmad
– Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Therapy & Health Rehabilitation, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Majmaah University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Al Majmaah, Al Qasim