Introduction: Alzheimer s disease (AD) is a progressive degenerative disease affecting a significant proportion of the elderly population. The disease is characterized clinically by a progressive loss of memory function and mental impairment associated with the presence of degenerative well known pathological lesions. Although, the pathogenesis of AD is unclear; several reports indicate the involvement of immune factors.
Patients and methods: This paper evaluates some cerebrospinal fluid immune markers from 21 patients with early and late AD and 20 age matched non-demented subjects. The analytical method included the evaluation of T cell subpopulations (using AcMc CD2, CD4, CD8) and activated T cells (AcMc HLA-DR and CD25) from CSF and peripheral blood by immunocytochemical techniques on a fixed cell slide as described by Bernd. The lymphocyte phenotype expressed as a percentage of positively stained cells for each cell surface marker evaluated.
Results: Some significant differences were observed for T cell subpopulations from different compartments, between the different AD groups and the controls (p< 0.05). Nevertheless, the most significant differences were found in the activated T cells from cerebrospinal fluid between AD groups and controls (p< 0.01).
Conclusions: These results support the theory of neuroimmune dysregulation, probably involved in the progressive neurodegeneration and dementia in some AD.