Figure 3

Dutch Aβ was less effective than WT Aβ in the generation of the 17-kDa tau fragment in cultured hippocampal neurons. (A) Western blot analysis of whole cell extracts prepared from 21 d in culture hippocampal neurons incubated in the absence (C) or the presence of increasing concentrations of WT or Dutch (E22Q) Aβ. The membranes were reacted with a tau antibody (clone tau 5). Tubulin was used as a loading control. Note the decrease in the immunoreactive bands corresponding to full-length tau and the increase in the one corresponding to the cleaved 17-kDa tau fragment as the dose of either Aβ increased. (B) Graph showing the 17-kDa/full-length tau ratio in control and WT or Dutch Aβ-treated hippocampal neurons. Values are expressed as the percentage of untreated controls, considering the values obtained in these neurons as 100%. Each number represents the mean ± SEM from five different experiments. One-way ANOVA followed by Fisher LSD post hoc test were performed. *Differs from control, P < 0.05; **differs from control, P < 0.01.