Relationships between β-amyloid (Aβ) deposits and blood vessels in patients with sporadic and familial Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

The density of diffuse, primitive and classic β-amyloid (Aβ) deposits was studied in relation to the incidence of blood vessels in the superior frontal gyrus of nine cases of sporadic Alzheimer's disease (SAD), two cases of familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD) with amyloid precursor protein (APP) mutations (APP 717, Val → Ile), and eight cases of FAD not linked to chromosomes 21, 14 or 1. Stepwise multiple regression was used to determine for each patient whether variations in the density of Aβ deposits along the cortex were significantly correlated with the incidence of blood vessels. In the majority of FAD and SAD cases, the density of the diffuse and primitive type Aβ deposits was not related to blood vessels. However, the incidence of the larger diameter (> 10 μm) blood vessels was positively correlated with the density of the classic Aβ deposits in eight (89%) SAD and two (20%) FAD cases. The data suggest that the densities of vessels and deposits were not significantly correlated between cases but only within cases, suggesting a strictly local effect. In addition, the spatial association between classic Aβ deposits and blood vessels may be more apparent in SAD compared with FAD cases.