Pick's disease: cytoskeletal changes in the hypothalamic lateral tuberal nucleus

Abstract

Basolateral portions of the human hypothalamus contain an extended nuclear gray, the lateral tuberal nucleus (LTN), which undergoes conspicuous pathological changes in a number of neurodegenerative diseases. The present study points to the severe affliction of this nucleus in Pick's disease (PID). Immunoreactions for abnormally phosphorylated tau-protein permit identification of the permutations. Only a fraction of the abnormal fibrillary material developing in the course of the disease shows a pronounced argyrophilia. Key features are the Pick bodies (PBs) which contain an argyrophilic material. Unusual non-spherical PBs develop in the LTN as flat structures with peripheral indentations. Small teardrop-like Pick neurites (PNs) emerge in varicose widenings of neuronal processes and display a much weaker argyrophilia. The characteristic alterations seen in PID reliably can be differentiated from lesions of the LTN which slowly emerge in the course of Alzheimer's disease (AD).