Phosphorylated neurofilaments in neuronal perikarya and dendrites in human brain following axonal damage

Experimental studies in animals have shown that neurofilament phosphorylation, normally confined to axons, occurs aberrantly in neuronal perikarya and dendrites following axonal damage. We have studied this phenomenon in the human brain in cases of stroke and other focal lesions. Neurons with axons that project to damaged brain areas were found to show a Golgi-like staining of perikarya and dendrites upon immunostaining with antibodies specific for phosphorylated epitopes of 200 kD neurofilament protein. These results indicate that phosphorylation of neurofilaments in perikarya is a component of the nonchromatolytic retrograde reaction in at least some brain neurons whose axons have been injured. The strikingly detailed perikaryal and dendritic staining of these neurons provides a new approach to the investigation of connections of specific morphological types of neurons in the human brain.