EXPRESSION PATTERN OF SYNUCLEINS (NON-A-BETA COMPONENT OF ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE AMYLOID PRECURSOR PROTEIN ALPHA-SYNUCLEIN) DURING MURINE BRAIN-DEVELOPMENT
Lj. Hsu et al., EXPRESSION PATTERN OF SYNUCLEINS (NON-A-BETA COMPONENT OF ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE AMYLOID PRECURSOR PROTEIN ALPHA-SYNUCLEIN) DURING MURINE BRAIN-DEVELOPMENT, Journal of neurochemistry, 71(1), 1998, pp. 338-344
The non-A beta component of Alzheimer's disease amyloid precursor prot
ein (NACP) is predominantly a neuron-specific presynaptic protein that
may play a central role in neurodegeneration because NACP fragments a
re found in Alzheimer's disease amyloid and a mutation in the NACP gen
e is associated with familiar Parkinson's disease, In addition, NACP m
ay play an important role during synaptogenesis and CNS development. T
o understand better the patterns of NACP expression during development
, we analyzed the levels of this protein as well as the levels of anot
her synaptic protein (synaptophysin) by ribonuclease protection assay,
western blotting, and immunocytochemistry in fetal, juvenile, and adu
lt mouse brain. From embryonic day 12 to 15, there was a slight increa
se, which was then followed by a more dramatic increase at later time
points. Immunocytochemical staining for NACP increases throughout thes
e stages as well. Although NACP appeared early in CNS development, syn
aptophysin levels started to rise at a later stage. These findings sup
port the contention that NACP might be important for CNS development.
Furthermore, the cytosolic component of NACP precedes the particulate
component in development, indicating that a redistribution of the prot
ein to the membrane fraction may be important for events later in neur
onal development and in synaptogenesis.