1.
FEBS Lett
; 582(15): 2188-94, 2008 Jun 25.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-18486611
ABSTRACT
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) share epidemiological and biochemical features. Both are characterized by insoluble protein aggregates with a fibrillar conformation--amylin in Type 2 DM pancreatic islets, and Abeta in AD brain. To determine whether amylin shares neurotoxic properties with Abeta, we incubated hippocampal and cortical neurons with Abeta42 and human amylin. Different from non-amyloidogenic rat amylin, both caused a dose-, time- and cell type-specific neurotoxicity supporting the notion of a similar toxic mechanism. Depending on the cell type, this finding is also supported by co-incubation of human amylin and Abeta.