ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with three principal issues in Alzheimer’s disease (AD): neuropathological hallmarks and their importance for post-mortem diagnosis and pathogenesis of the dementia; biological processes that underlie these pathological features; and the status of animal models. In 1985, the National Institute on Aging and other agencies sponsored a conference to foster investigation on AD and to advance the progress of research on the diagnosis of AD. The pathology of AD is characterized by conspicuous perturbations of the cytoskeleton and its protein constituents. Molecular mechanisms that lead to the formation and deposition of cerebral amyloid are the focus of intense investigation in AD. Various laboratories have attempted to generate mouse models of AD using standard pronuclei injection-based transgenic technologies. The availability of transgenic animal models will allow faster testing of hypotheses for the pathogenesis of AD and the development of strategies to prevent or retard specific pathological processes.
