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Symmetric Bihemispheric Postmortem Brain Cutting to Study Healthy and Pathological Brain Conditions in Humans

Symmetric Bihemispheric Postmortem Brain Cutting to Study Healthy and Pathological Brain Conditions in Humans

Published on: December 18, 2016

Neurodegenerative changes in human aging brain. An autopsy study.

D Arsene¹, Carmen Ardeleanu

¹Histopathology Department, Victor Babes National Institute for Research and Development in Pathology and Biomedical Sciences, Bucharest, Romania. dorelarsene@yahoo.com

Romanian Journal of Morphology and Embryology = Revue Roumaine De Morphologie Et Embryologie

|March 2, 2010

Summary

Brain aging involves neurodegenerative changes like senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. While these lesions increase with age, their direct link to aging requires further human studies.

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Last Updated: Jun 15, 2026

Symmetric Bihemispheric Postmortem Brain Cutting to Study Healthy and Pathological Brain Conditions in Humans

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Published on: December 18, 2016

Abbiategrasso Brain Bank Protocol for Collecting, Processing and Characterizing Aging Brains

Abbiategrasso Brain Bank Protocol for Collecting, Processing and Characterizing Aging Brains

Published on: June 3, 2020

Area of Science:

Neurology
Neuroscience
Pathology

Background:

Neurodegenerative changes in the human brain often parallel the aging process.
Senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles are key pathological hallmarks.
Understanding their relationship with aging is crucial for neurodegenerative disease research.

Purpose of the Study:

To prospectively characterize cortical senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in adult human subjects.
To determine if aging is associated with increased burden of these lesions.
To investigate the cortical distribution of lesions irrespective of mental status.

Main Methods:

Post-mortem examination of 55 adult human subjects across a wide age spectrum (30-97 years).
Immunohistochemistry for amyloid-beta (Abeta) and tau protein.
ApoE genotyping in 33 cases via polymerase chain reaction.

Main Results:

Brain Abeta deposition (senile plaques) was observed only in subjects over 65 years old.
Abeta accumulation strongly correlated with the presence of neurofibrillary tangles.
Notably, some very elderly individuals lacked both Abeta and tau-positive lesions.

Conclusions:

Abeta and tau protein deposition show a predilection for the aging brain.
The direct relationship between these pathological hallmarks and the aging process warrants further investigation in human subjects.
Individual variability exists in the manifestation of these age-related brain changes.