Neuropathological comorbidity associated with argyrophilic grain disease

Argyrophilic grain disease (AGD) is a common four‐repeat tauopathy in elderly people. While dementia is a major clinical picture of AGD, recent studies support the possibility that AGD may be a pathological base in some patients with mild cognitive impairment, late‐onset psychosis, bipolar disorder and depression. AGD often coexists with various other degenerative changes. The frequency of AGD in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) cases was reported to range from 18.8% to 80%. The frequency of AGD in corticobasal degeneration (CBD) cases tends to be higher than that in PSP cases, ranging from 41.2% to 100%. Conversely, in our previous study of the frequencies of mild PSP and CBD pathologies in AGD cases, five of 20 AGD cases (25%) had a few Gallyas‐positive tufted astrocytes, six cases (30%) had a few granular/fuzzy astrocytes, and one case (5.0%) had a few Gallyas‐positive astrocytic plaques in the putamen, caudate nucleus and/or superior frontal gyrus. Both Gallyas‐positive tufted astrocytes and Gallyas‐negative tau‐positive granular/fuzzy astrocytes preferentially developed in the putamen, caudate nucleus and superior frontal cortex in AGD cases, being consistent with the predilection sites of Gallyas‐positive tufted astrocytes in PSP cases. Further, in AGD cases, the quantities of Gallyas‐positive tufted astrocytes, overall tau‐positive astrocytes, and tau‐positive neurons in the subcortical nuclei and superior frontal cortex were significantly cor...
Source: Neuropathology - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Symposium: Comorbid pathologies of neurodegenerative diseases Source Type: research