Nuclear microscopy study of neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

The NUS nuclear microscope has been utilized to determine aluminium concentrations in normal and neurofibrillary-tangle-bearing neurons in brain tissue sections from Alzheimer's patients. It was demonstrated that both neurons and neurofibrillary tangles can be identified by STIM in situ in thin tissue. High aluminium levels of up to 500 parts per million were found in tissue fixed with osmium tetroxide, with higher concentrations present in neurons than in surrounding tissue. Preliminary results on untreated freeze dried sections however have yielded an absence of aluminium down to the minimum detection limits of 20 ppm, implying that aluminium is an artifact introduced during sample preparation.