Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 15, 2026

Using Saccadometry with Deep Brain Stimulation to Study Normal and Pathological Brain Function
Published on: July 14, 2016
Activated forms of astrocytes with higher GLT-1 expression are associated with cognitive normal subjects with
Eiji Kobayashi1,2, Masako Nakano1, Kenta Kubota1,3
1Department of Anatomy, Sapporo Medical University, School of Medicine, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 060-8556, Japan.
Abstract:
Although the cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is believed to be caused by amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), several postmortem studies have reported cognitive normal subjects with AD brain pathology. As the mechanism underlying these discrepancies has not been clarified, we focused the neuroprotective role of astrocytes. After examining 47 donated brains, we classified brains into 3 groups, no AD pathology with no dementia (N-N), AD pathology with no dementia (AD-N), and AD pathology with dementia (AD-D), which represented 41%, 21%, and 38% of brains, respectively. No differences were found in the accumulation of Aβ plaques or NFTs in the entorhinal cortex (EC) between AD-N and AD-D. Number of neurons and synaptic density were increased in AD-N compared to those in AD-D. The astrocytes in AD-N possessed longer or thicker processes, while those in AD-D possessed shorter or thinner processes in layer I/II of the EC. Astrocytes in all layers of the EC in AD-N showed enhanced GLT-1 expression in comparison to those in AD-D. Therefore these activated forms of astrocytes with increased GLT-1 expression may exert beneficial roles in preserving cognitive function, even in the presence of Aβ and NFTs.
More Related Videos
08:01Intracerebroventricular Injection of Amyloid-β Peptides in Normal Mice to Acutely Induce Alzheimer-like Cognitive Deficits
Published on: March 16, 2016
08:29Symmetric Bihemispheric Postmortem Brain Cutting to Study Healthy and Pathological Brain Conditions in Humans
Published on: December 18, 2016
Related Concept Videos
Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development
Exploration...
Cognitive Dissonance
Alzheimer's Disease: Treatment
Normal Distribution
Normal Stress
When a rod is under axial loading, the internal forces and corresponding stress are normal to the plane of the section, so it is termed normal stress. It's important to...
Cable Subjected to Its Own Weight
A generalized loading function is employed to analyze a cable subjected to its own weight. This function considers the force acting along the cable's arc length rather than its projected length, providing a more accurate...