NADPH-diaphorase-containing neurons in cortex, subcortical white matter and neostriatum are selectively spared in Alzheimer's disease.

To investigate the involvement of NADPH-diaphorase (NADPH-d)-containing neurons in Alzheimer's disease (AD), NADPH-d enzyme histochemistry in vibratome sections was applied to the superior frontal and superior temporal cortex and the neostriatum in 5 AD and 6 aged control brains. Overall there was a neuronal loss and atrophy in the cortex of AD. Despite slight morphological neuronal changes in the cortex of AD, we found no significant difference in the number of NADPH-d-positive neurons in both cortex and neostriatum between control and AD cases. These results provide further evidence for a selective preservation of NADPH-d neurons in AD. In order to check whether nNOS-immunoreactive neurons are identical to NADPH-d-positive neurons in the human brain, we examined the frontal and temporal cortex and neostriatum of normal human brains in serial cryostat sections. We found that nNOS-containing neurons paralleled NADPH-d-positive neurons in these brain regions. Copyrightz1999S.KargerAG,Basel