National Institutes of Health other research news

NIH researchers reported that a defect in fibroblast cells from Alzheimer's patients can be reproduced by adding beta amyloid to fibroblasts.

Cells cultured from age-matched normal people, treated with beta amyloid for 48 hours, were missing the implicated potassium channel. All but one of 21 cells tested lacked the channel, whereas the channel was present in 16 of 17 untreated cells (p < 0.0001). Another kind of potassium channel was present in both treated and untreated cells. As reported in Science, an influx of calcium into the cells, a response that depends on the implicated potassium pore in the cell membrane, was eliminated or markedly reduced by 10 nanomolar concentrations of beta amyloid. ...