Caspase-cleaved tau in the human vascular dementia brain.

<p><b>(A)</b>: Representative labeling from a VaD case utilizing the TauC3 antibody illustrating staining in the hippocampus within apparent NFTs. <b>(B):</b> Representative staining in the hippocampus indicating labeling of TauC3 within neuritic plaques (arrowhead), as well as apparent NFTs (arrow). <b>(C):</b> Correlation of TauC3 labeling with Braak & Braak stage. For six VaD cases in which the Braak & Braak stage was known, the number of TauC3-positive NFTs was counted three separate times, averaged and then plotted versus Braak & Braak stage. A positive correlation (R² = .070) was observed between these two variables. <b>(D)</b>: Western blot analysis utilizing the TauC3 antibody was carried out utilizing brain extracts from the frontal cortex (FCTX) or cerebellum (CBL) of four VaD cases. Lanes 1 (Case 6, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0132637#pone.0132637.t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>) and 2 (Case 4, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0132637#pone.0132637.t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>) are VaD cases that had Stage A plaque load, whereas lanes 3 (Case 3, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0132637#pone.0132637.t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>) and 4 (Case 2, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0132637#pone.0132637.t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>) were designated as having a plaque load of 0. A band at 50 kDa corresponding to caspase-cleaved tau truncated at Asp⁴²¹ was identified in the FCTX of all four VaD cases and two of four cases in the CBL. The bottom panel of D depicts an identical experiment except transferred proteins were probed with HT7 (1:1,000), an antibody that detects total, full-length (FL) tau. <b>(E and F):</b> Low (E) and high magnification (F) of representative labeling from a VaD case utilizing the TauC3 antibody illustrating staining in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus within numerous, round translucent structures. All scale bars represent 10 μm, except for Panel E, which represents 50 μm.