Selective binding of soluble Abeta1-40 and Abeta1-42 to a subset of senile plaques.

Alzheimer's disease is characterized by the progressive accumulation of amyloid-beta protein (Abeta) in senile plaques and cerebral amyloid angiopathy. It is not known whether the plaque growth is a continuous and homogeneous process or whether some plaques have a more rapid evolution. As plaques grow by the deposition of Abeta, we used an in situ binding technique to analyze the deposition of fluorescein-conjugated and biotinylated Abeta1 40 and Abeta1-42 in cryosections of brains from Alzheimer's disease patients. Only a subset of senile plaques but all cerebrovascular Abeta deposits were labeled by both Abeta1-40 and Abeta1-42. Striking differences in binding were observed among adjacent plaques. Quantitative analysis showed that on average 60% of all plaques were labeled with Abeta1-42 and 31% of all plaques were labeled with Abeta1-40 (n=7; P<0.001). Confocal laser scanning microscopy of double-labeled sections revealed that the newly deposited Abeta was only partially co-localized to pre-existing Abeta and apolipoprotein E and was not co-localized to heparan sulfate proteoglycan. Abeta binding was preserved after glycolytic pretreatment with periodic acid. Our results suggest that at a given time point only a subset of active senile plaques accumulate A(beta) and that plaque growth may be conditioned by the presence of other distinct plaque components different from Abeta, apolipoprotein E or heparan sulfate proteoglycan.