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Tracy Hampton, PhD

JAMA. 2008;299(13):1533.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The amyloid plaques found in the brain of patients with Alzheimer disease may form much more rapidly than previously thought. Using an advanced microscopic imaging technique called longitudinal in vivo multiphoton microscopy to examine brain tissue in mouse models of the disease, researchers from the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease in Charlestown, Mass, found that plaques form quickly over a 24-hour period (Meyer-Luehmann M et al. Nature. 2008;451[7179]:720-724). They also observed that within 1 to 2 days of a new plaque's appearance, microglia are activated and recruited to the site.

The findings may help solve a long-standing debate regarding whether plaques precede and induce the neuronal abnormalities seen in dementia or are simply a by-product of other alterations in the brain.

Plaques (blue), shown here with neurons (green) and blood vessels (red), can develop more rapidly than previously thought in brain tissue of patients with Alzheimer . . . [Full Text of this Article]