Semiquantitative Analysis of Alzheimer pathology in the hippocampus of
SuperAgers and Age-Matched Controls
 
   Lead Investigator:    Lokesh Kukreja
   Institution      :    Northwestern University
   E-Mail           :    lokesh.kukreja@northwestern.edu
   Proposal ID      :    563



   Proposal Description:
   Neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques are used as diagnostic markers for    Alzheimer disease (AD), a pathologic diagnosis mostly associated with Dementia    of the Alzheimer type (DAT). The strongest risk factor for DAT/AD is age          itself. But a subset of individuals age 80 or older avoids age-related changes    in memory that are apparent in patients with DAT and AD pathology.  These         people are known as SuperAgers, with an extraordinary memory capacity that is     at least as good as that of people 20-30 years their junior.                      We want to perform a semiquantitative analysis to determine the distribution of   tangles and plaques in the hippocampal formation, focusing on the CA subfields    and the dentate gyrus. We expect AD pathology to be significantly less in the     hippocampal regions of Superagers compared to that of the controls.               Neurofibrillary tangle density should be particularly fewer in Superagers         compared to controls since tangles are the strongest correlate of cognitive       decline in DAT patients with AD.