Microtubule-associated protein tau (UniProt P10636; also known as Neurofibrillary tangle protein, Paired helical filament-tau, PHF-tau) is encoded by the MAPT (also known as TAU, MAPT1, MTBTL) gene (Gene ID 4137) in human. In Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology, accumulation of the microtubule-associated protein tau takes place primarily in the neurons. Tau accumulates in both the somatodendritic and axonal domains of neurons. Tau also accumulates in the soma as neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). Cell death and synaptic lesions occur independently of NFT formation, and research indicates that NFT formation alone is insufficient for neurodegeneration, suggesting that soluble tau aggregates may be the more toxic and pathologically significant tau species. Tau oligomers are neurotoxic when applied extracellularly to cultured neuronal cells, and tau oligomers (but not fibrils) induce neurodegeneration and synaptic and mitochondrial dysfunction in vivo. Moreove, researchers are able to use tau oligomers as a reliable biomarker to differentiate AD brains from age-matched non-AD brains.
Synonyms: Microtubule-associated protein tau oligomer, Tau oligomer, PHF-tau oligomer, Paired helical filament-tau oligomer, Neurofibrillary tangle protein oligomer
Application: Western Blotting Analysis: 4-6.67 µg/mL from a representative lot detected tau oligomers in frontal cortex tissue lysates from Alzheimer's diseased (AD), but not from age-matched non-AD, human brains (Courtesy of Prof. Rakez Kayed, University of Texas, Galveston).Dot Blot Analysis: A representative lot detected human P301S tau oligomers in hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) and medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) tissue lysates from PS19 transgenic mice. Daily N-SMase Inhibitor GW4869 i.p. injection reduced tau oligomer accumulation in DG, but not MEC (Asai, H., et al. (2015). Nat. Neurosci. 18(11):1584-1593).Dot Blot Analysis: A representative lot detected increased tau oligomers formation in Alzheimer's diseased (AD) as well as in aged non-AD human medial temporal gyrus tissue lysates (Blair, L.J., et al. (2013). J. Clin. Invest. 123(10):4158-4169).Immunohistochemistry Analysis: A representative lot detected human tau oligomers formation in paraffin-embedded striatal sections of Huntington s diseased brains (Vuono, R., et al. (2015). Brain. 138(Pt 7):1907-1918).Immunohistochemistry Analysis: A representative lot detected increased human tau P301L mutant oligomers formation in CA3 region of Tg4510 mice following FKBP51-expressing AAV viarl particles injection using 4% paraformaldehyde-fixed free-floating brain sections (Blair, L.J., et al. (2013). J. Clin. Invest. 123(10):4158-4169).Immunofluorescence Analysis: A representative lot detected granule cell layer (GCL) neurons containing oligomers of virally expressed human P301L mutant tau 1 441 by fluorescent immunohistochemistry staining of brain sections from mice received recombinant viral injection to the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) (Asai, H., et al. (2015). Nat. Neurosci. 18(11):1584-1593).Immunofluorescence Analysis: A representative lot detected greatly enhanced tau oligomers co-localized with that of oxidative nucleic acid damage marker 8-OH(d)G in human AD brain, as well as heat stress- (HS-) induced Tau oligomers formation in the brain CA1 region of THY-Tau22 transgenic mice expressing human tau with G272V and P301S mutation by fluorescent immunohistochemistry staining of paraffin-embedded brain tissue sections (Violet, M., et al. (2015). Neurobiol. Dis. 82:540-551).Western Blotting Analysis: A representative lot detected human P301S tau oligomers-containing exosomal fractions from PS19 transgenic mice. Dietary supplementation with CSF-1R Inhibitor PLX3397 reduced exosomal tau oligomer accumulation (Asai, H., et al. (2015). Nat. Neurosci. 18(11):1584-1593).The unpurified antiserum (Cat. No. ABN454) is also available for dot blot, ELISA, immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, immunoprecipitation, neutralization, and Western blotting applications.
Other Notes: Concentration: Please refer to lot specific datasheet.