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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Quantitative Microtubule Fractionation Technique to Separate Stable Microtubules, Labile Microtubules, and Free Tubulin in Mouse Tissues
Published on: November 17, 2023
Relationship between microtubule-binding repeats and morphology of neurofibrillary tangle in Alzheimer's disease
T Kitamura1, K Sugimori, S Sudo
1Ishikawa Prefectural Takamatsu Hospital, Uchi-takamatsu, Kahoku, Ishikawa-ken, Japan.
Objective:
The present study was performed to compare the distributions of three-repeat (3R) and four-repeat (4R) neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) with those of pretangles (p-NFT), intracellular NFT (i-NFT), and extracellular NFT (e-NFT) in the hippocampus of Alzheimer's disease brains.
Methods:
NFT labeling was performed using anti-tau antibodies: pSer262 for p-NFT, pSer422 for i-NFT, AT8 for e-NFT, RD3 for 3R, and RD4 for 4R tau, and Gallyas impregnation for the NFT population. RD4- and pSer422-positive NFT were detected predominantly in sectors from CA2 to CA4, while RD3- and pSer262-positive NFT were predominantly present in CA1, the entorhinal cortex, and the subiculum. The tau epitope recognized by pSer262 belongs to 4R tau but it showed a strong correlation with RD3- and AT8-positive NFT.
Conclusions:
Sectors CA2-CA4 showed predominantly 4R-NFT containing the pSer422 epitope. pSer262 may detect the process of transformation from p-NFT to i-NFT, and e-NFT consisted predominantly of 3R tau.
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