Histologic study of age-related change in the posterior pituitary gland focusing on abnormal deposition of tau protein.

We studied histologic findings of age-related change in the posterior pituitary gland focusing specifically on abnormal deposition of tau protein. Posterior pituitary glands from a total of 201 patients with mean age of 72, range 15 to 100 years, were dissected at autopsy, and semiquantitative analysis of tau protein deposition in the posterior pituitaries was performed. We confirmed that tau protein deposition in the posterior pituitary appears histologically as either a 'thread-like' or 'dot' form.