Glial fibrillary acidic protein and Alzheimer's disease

A major protein associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) was detected by an electrophoretic study of temporal cortex obtained at autopsy from patients affected with AD, non-AD dementia, and normal controls matched for age and sex. A markedly increased amount of a 50,000 dalton molecular weight protein, which has been identified as glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), was observed in the crude nuclear fraction of temporal cortex from AD patients. These electrophoretic data may reflect the presence of GFAP immunopositive astrocytic processes that have been shown by immunocytologic methods to infiltrate the neurofibrillary tangles that characterize AD.