The potential for beta-structure in the repeat domain of tau protein determines aggregation, synaptic decay, neuronal loss, and coassembly with endogenous Tau in inducible mouse models of tauopathy.

We describe two new transgenic mouse lines for studying pathological changes of Tau protein related to Alzheimer's disease. They are based on the regulatable expression of the four-repeat domain of human Tau carrying the FTDP17 (frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17) mutation deltaK280 (Tau(RD)/deltaK280), or the deltaK280 plus two proline mutations in the hexapeptide motifs (Tau(RD)/deltaK280/I277P/I308P). The deltaK280 mutation accelerates aggregation ("proaggregation mutant"), whereas the proline mutations inhibit Tau aggregation in vitro and in cell models ("antiaggregation mutant").

The beta-propensity of Tau determines aggregation and synaptic loss in inducible mouse models of tauopathy.

Neurofibrillary lesions are characteristic for a group of human diseases, named tauopathies, which are characterized by prominent intracellular accumulations of abnormal filaments formed by the microtubule-associated protein Tau. The tauopathies are accompanied by abnormal changes in Tau protein, including pathological conformation, somatodendritic mislocalization, hyperphosphorylation, and aggregation, whose interdependence is not well understood. To address these issues we have created transgenic mouse lines in which different variants of full-length Tau are expressed in a regulatable fashion, allowing one to switch the expression on and off at defined time points.