Cerebrospinal Fluid Concentrations Of Tau Research Articles

Cerebrospinal fluid levels of tau and phospho-tau-181 proteins during pregnancy.

During pregnancy various interactions occur between structural alterations of the maternal brain and placental metabolism. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of tau and phospho-tau-181 protein vary during normal pregnancy and in women with preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome. We measured cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers, tau and phospho-tau-181 protein levels in 90 pregnant women electively assigned for regional anaesthesia during pregnancy or for cesarean section using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Cerebrospinal fluid concentrations for tau and phospho-tau-181 in 66 women with normal pregnancy were 308.5±117.3pg/mL and 50.5±16.7pg/mL, respectively. Blood pressure, liver function, clotting activity and kidney function were significantly different in eleven women with preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome. The weight of the newly born (p<0.001; HR: 0.998), the weight of the placenta (p=0.018) and concentrations for phospho-tau-181 (p=0.043; HR: 1.211) correlated significantly with the disease. Mean concentrations of cerebrospinal fluid tau and phospho-tau-181 protein during pregnancy were evaluated. Phospho-tau-181 protein concentrations correlated with placental function supporting the hypothesis that altered expression of neuronal factors during pregnancy may affect development of the placenta.

The ELISA-Measured Increase in Cerebrospinal Fluid Tau that Discriminates Alzheimer's Disease from other Neurodegenerative Disorders is not Attributable to Differential Recognition of Tau Assembly Forms

Elevated cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of tau discriminate Alzheimer's disease from other neurodegenerative conditions. The reasons for this are unclear. While commercial assay kits are widely used to determine total-tau concentrations, little is known about their ability to detect different aggregation states of tau. We demonstrate that the leading commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay reliably detects aggregated and monomeric tau and evinces good recovery of both species when added into cerebrospinal fluid. Hence, the disparity between total-tau levels encountered in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions is not due to differential recognition of tau assembly forms or the extent of degeneration.

Increased CSF tau protein in corticobasal degeneration.

Using a sensitive sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method, we measured the concentration of total tau protein in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from nine patients with corticobasal degeneration (CBD) in comparison with 12 normal control subjects in order to assess its diagnostic value. The CSF concentration of tau in patients with CBD (0.69, 0.20 ng/ml; mean, SD) was higher than that in, the normal controls (0.48, 0.14 ng/ml, P = 0.0076 unpaired t test). This increase in CBD patients may reflect widespread tau pathology in CBD, but should be interpreted with reserve as an aid to diagnosis.