The function of the microtubule-associated protein tau is variably modulated by graded changes in glycogen synthase kinase-3beta activity.

The microtubule-associated protein tau favors microtubule nucleation and stabilization and plays a role in the elongation of axons. We have investigated the ability of glycogen synthase kinase-3beta (GSK-3beta) to control tau-induced processes outgrowth. Tau-transfected Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells developed processes containing microtubule bundles after cytochalasin treatment, but a significant reduction in the number of cells harboring processes was observed in tau/GSK-3beta-co-transfected cells.

Calcium binding protein calcyphosine in dog central astrocytes and ependymal cells and in peripheral neurons.

Calcyphosine is a calcium binding protein discovered in the dog thyroid in 1979. Calcyphosine mRNA and immunoreactivity were detected using Western and Northern blotting in the cerebral cortex, cerebral white matter and cerebellum. Using immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization, both are present in ependymal cells, choroid plexus cells and several types of astrocytes of the subependymal cerebral layer, the cerebellar Bergmann layer, the retinal ganglion cell layer, the optic nerve and the posterior pituitary.

The pathology of infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis after healing.

Introduction: Infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (IHPS) is a common surgical affection of unknown etiology. The muscular hypertrophy is known to resolve within a few months after pyloromyotomy (PM). The pathology of IHPS has been studied extensively at the time of PM, but the fate of the pylorus after healing remains unknown.

Calcineurin (phosphatase 2B) is present in neurons containing neurofibrillary tangles and in a subset of senile plaques in Alzheimer's disease.

The accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau species in neurons in Alzheimer's disease (AD) might result from a relative decrease in their content of protein phosphatases. In this study we have investigated the immunocytochemical distribution of calcineurin (phosphatase 2B) in the hippocampus and temporal cortex of human control subjects and in AD. Calcineurin was strongly expressed in neuronal perikarya and dendrites but only weakly in white matter tracts, both in controls and in AD.