Changes of p53 in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Recent studies suggest that cortical neurons and glial cells undergo apoptosis in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Since the protein p53 is known to induce apoptosis, we assessed p53 in postmortem samples from normal human and AD brains using specific antibody. In AD brains, the amount of p53 in temporal cortex was significantly higher than in controls, and this p53-like immunoreactivity was observed in glial cells. These findings suggest that the p53 may be involved in the apoptosis of glial cells in AD brains, but apoptosis in neurons may occur through a p53-independent pathway.