Aberration of Vimentin Array in Fibroblast from Familial Alzheimer’s Disease

The change of cytoskeletal systems in Alzheimer brain has been speculated (Takeda,1989). In the brain there are three main intermediate filaments; neurofilaments in the neuron, glial filaments in the astrocyte, and vimentin fibers in the mesenchymal cell. There are reports suggesting the change of intermediate filaments in Alzheimer’ disease. Neurofilament protein is over phosphorylated (Sternberger,1985). Neurofilament protein shares antigenic epitopes with neurofibrillary changes of Alzheimer’s disease (Miller,1986). The experimental neurofibrillary changes produced by aluminium intoxication in rabbit brains are composed of accumulated neurofilament fibers (Takeda,1984). Higher serum antibody titer against glial fibrillary acidic protein is reported with Alzheimer patients. In this report cultured fibroblasts from Alzheimer patients are studied. The decreased attaching ability of the cell to the stratum and the derrangement of vimentin fibers is studied by fluorescent immunostaining.