期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
电子版ISSN:1091-6490
出版年度:1984
卷号:81
期号:6
页码:1875-1879
DOI:10.1073/pnas.81.6.1875
语种:English
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:We report the distribution and imaging of calcium and aluminum in neurofibrillary tangle (NFT)-bearing neurons within Sommer's sector of the hippocampus in Guamanian patients with parkinsonism-dementia, using a method of computer-controlled electron beam x-ray micro-analysis and wavelength dispersive spectrometry. Calcium and aluminum were distributed in cell bodies and axonal processes of NFT-bearing neurons. The elemental images show that both calcium and aluminum deposits occur within the same NFT-bearing hippocampal neuron in this dementing disease, suggesting that these elements are involved in NFT formation. No prominent concentrations of calcium and aluminum were imaged in non-NFT-containing regions within the pyramidal cell layer of the parkinsonism-dementia cases or in the control cases. These findings support the hypothesis that secondary hyperparathyroidism resulting from low environmental calcium and magnesium in the high-incidence focus of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and parkinsonism-dementia on Guam had led to abnormal deposition of calcium and aluminum in the central nervous system.