The Cytoskeleton and Neuronal Disease

The presence of fibrillar intraneural structures was first recognized over 150 years ago. The introduction, at the turn of the century, of silver stains which reproducibly demonstrated linear “neurofibrils” in the neuronal cytoplasm encouraged active neuropathological investigation into the role of these structures in disease. This approach rapidly yielded results with the description by Alzheimer of an apparent thickening and in-crease in number of neurofibrils in several cases of presenile dementia. The association of premature loss of recent memory in persons of middle age with a specific neuronal lesion in the central nervous system is a landmark in the correlation of “mental” changes with cellular pathology.