Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and TDP-43 : elucidation of the entire neuropathological picture and molecular pathomechanism

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We examined clinicopathologically and immunohistochemically a large series of sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (SALS) cases, including those having long disease durations with artificial respiratory support. In each case, various brain regions were immunostained with an antibody against TDP-43, showing occurrence of TDP-43-positive neuronal (NCIs) and glial cytoplasmic inclusions in many regions, including the lower motor neuron nuclei. The results obtained indicate that SALS is a multisystem neuro-glial proteinopathy of TDP-43 and can show two pathological phenotypes (types 1 and 2 ; type 2 can be distinguished from type 1 by the presence of TDP-43-positive NCIs in the frontotemoral cortex, hippocampal formation, neostriatum and substantia nigra). We also generated a transgenic TDP-43 KO mouse model for further biochemical and molecular analyses on the pathomechanisms underlying SALS. The several data obtained strongly suggest that our next target is "splicing abnormalities of TDP-43".