Distribution of beta-amyloid protein in the brain following severe head injury.

Deposits of beta-amyloid protein (beta AP) can be found in the brains of 30% of fatally head-injured patients; they have been found in children and after survival times of only 4 h. The principal aims of this study were to map the distribution of beta AP in 14 patients aged 65 years or less in whom it was known that the protein had been deposited, and to correlate its distribution with the pathologies of traumatic brain injury. The results show that beta AP is widely distributed, and that there is no correlation between its presence and cerebral contusions, intracranial haematoma, axonal injury, ischaemic brain damage, brain swelling or the pathology of raised intracranial pressure. These findings suggest that the deposition of beta AP is a consequence of the acute phase response of nerve cells to stress in susceptible individuals. Further studies will be required to establish the possible relationship between the deposition of beta AP following head injury and the molecular neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease.