Skip to main content
  • Poster presentation
  • Open access
  • Published:

Aneuploidy-driven non-heritable genomic variations demonstrate area-specific distribution in the Alzheimer’s disease brain

Background

Post-zygotic aneuploidy is the prominent genetic feature of the human brain (1). Genomically mosaic brain results from that the excess of aneuploid neurons due to early developmental disturbances (somatic genome variations), abnormal cell cycle regulation and altered programmed cell death. As the result, aneuploidization of the brain is a likely susceptibility factor (mechanism) for brain disorders including Alzheimer’s disease.

Materials and methods

The proportion of aneuploid cells was determined in brain areas differentially affected by neurodegeneration (prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and cerebellum) by molecular-cytogenetic and immunohistochemical techniques (interphase MFISH, immunoFISH) in brain tissues of individuals with AD and controls as described ealier (2).

Results

Increased levels of aneuploidy (monosomy and trisomy) involving chromosome 21 and chromosome X was observed in AD brain. The high level of aneuploidy involving chromosome 21 was observed in the AD cerebrum and hippocampus. In total, the incidence of abnormal (aneuploid) neural cells was significantly higher in degenerating brain areas (hippocampus, prefrontal cortex) comparing to the less degenerating area (cerebellum).

Conclusions

Our data indicates that AD brain areas subjected to neurodegeneration are more significantly affected by aneuploidy (especially aneuploidy of chromosomes 21 and X). We propose that widespread postzygotic aneuploidization of selected brain areas is a mechanism for AD neurodegeneration. Such area-specific distribution of aneuploidy can be explained by the accumulation of aneuploid cells during postnatal life or abnormal selective pressure against non-aneuploid cells (3). Finally, these data provide for the speculation that acquired neural aneuploidy could be generated during both developing and adult neurogenesis/gliogenesis.

References

  1. lourov lY, Vorsanova SG, Yurov YB: Somatic genome variations in health and disease. Current Genomics. 2010, 11: 387-396. 10.2174/138920210793176065.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. lourov lY, Vorsanova SG, Liehr T, Yurov YB: Aneuploidy in the normal, Alzheimer’s disease and ataxia-telangiectasia brain: differential expression and pathological meaning. Neurobiol Dis. 2009, 34: 212-220. 10.1016/j.nbd.2009.01.003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Yurov YB, Vorsanova SG, lourov lY: GIN’n’CIN hypothesis of brain aging: deciphering the role of somatic genetic instabilities and neural aneuploidy during ontogeny. Molecular Cytogenetics. 2009, 2: 23-10.1186/1755-8166-2-23.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Supported by BMBF/DLR (BLR 11/002), the Russian Federation President Grant (MD-4401.2013.7), RFBR 12-04-00215-a.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

lourov, I., Vorsanova, S., Liehr, T. et al. Aneuploidy-driven non-heritable genomic variations demonstrate area-specific distribution in the Alzheimer’s disease brain. Mol Neurodegeneration 8 (Suppl 1), P52 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1186/1750-1326-8-S1-P52

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1750-1326-8-S1-P52

Keywords