Studies made on brain fluids and tissues may assist in developing new diagnostic and therapeutic procedures for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Patients with AD suffer mental deterioration associated with neurofibrillary tangle and senile plaque formation. The excessive sprouting seen in the brains of AD patients may be due to a growth factor activity. To test this hypothesis, we treated neuronal cells in culture with brain extracts from AD patients and normal controls. The results show excessive branching activity of neuronal cells in culture, treated with AD brain extract suggesting overproduction of growth factor activity in AD brains. To find out if the growth factor laminin was increased in AD patients, we measured laminin in CSF and serum of AD patients and showed no difference in laminin values between AD patients and age matched controls but showed an age associated increase in laminin.
