Background: Microglia-mediated neuroinflammation in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is not only a response to pathophysiological events, but also plays a causative role in neurodegeneration. Cytoplasmic cysteinyl-tRNA synthetase (CARS) is considered to be a stimulant for immune responses to diseases; however, it remains unknown whether CARS is involved in the pathogenesis of AD.
Methods: Postmortem human temporal cortical tissues at different Braak stages and AD patient-derived serum samples were used to investigate the changes of CARS levels in AD by immunocytochemical staining, real-time PCR, western blotting and ELISA.