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Updated: Aug 8, 2026

Real-time Imaging of Axonal Transport of Quantum Dot-labeled BDNF in Primary Neurons
Published on: September 15, 2014
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor is reduced in Alzheimer's disease
1Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Abstract:
Alzheimer's disease may be due to a deficiency in neurotrophin protein or receptor expression. Consistent with this hypothesis, a reduction in BDNF mRNA expression has been observed in human post-mortem Alzheimer's disease hippocampi. To further investigate this observation, we examined whether the alteration in BDNF expression also occurred at the protein level in human post-mortem Alzheimer's disease hippocampi and temporal cortices using immunohistochemical techniques. We observed a reduction in the intensity and number of BDNF-immunoreactive cell bodies within both the Alzheimer's disease hippocampus and temporal cortex when compared to normal tissue. These results support and extend previous findings that BDNF mRNA is reduced in the human Alzheimer's disease hippocampus and temporal cortex, and suggest that a loss of BDNF may contribute to the progressive atrophy of neurons in Alzheimer's disease.
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