Tau and apo E in CSF

Abstract

To evaluate the usefulness of tau proteins as biological markers in the diagnosis of dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT), we analyzed the concentration of tau proteins in 253 cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from patients with or without neurological disorders. Our study showed a significant increase of the mean CSF tau concentration in DAT patients compared with that from non-DAT patients. Interestingly, a significative decrease of CSF tau in patients with frontotemporal dementia was found. We also observed a positive correlation between the CSF-tau concentration and the number of apoε4 alleles. The CSF apolipoprotein E concentration was evaluated and revealed no variation between the groups, although we observed a significant correlation between CSF tau and apolipoprotein E in DAT patients.