Authors
Juan F. Montiel , Nibaldo C. Inestrosa , Ariel E. Reyes, Marcelo A. Chacón, Waldo Cerpa, Aldo Villalón, Genevieve Merabachvili, Rebeca Aldunate, Francisco Bozinovic, Francisco AboitizDate published
2005Magazine
Neurobiology of AgingVolume
26Pages
1023-1028It is generally accepted that human Alzheimer’s disease (AD) neuropathology markers are completely absent in rodent brains. We report here that an aged wild-type South American rodent, Octodon degu, expresses neuronal beta-amyloid precursor protein (beta-APP695) displaying both intracellular and extracellular deposits of amyloid-beta-peptide (Abeta), intracellular accumulations of tau-protein and ubiquitin, a strong astrocytic response and acetylcholinesterase (AChE)-rich pyramidal neurons. The high amino acid homology (97.5%) between deguAbeta and humanAbeta sequences is probably a major factor in the appearance of AD markers in this aged rodent. Our results indicate that aged O. degu constitutes the first wild-type rodent model for neurodegenerative processes associated to AD.