Somatostatin-positive neurons in the different parts of the brain in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease.

The present work seeks to verify if there is a difference in the number of somatostatin neurons in the cortex between normal aging versus Alzheimer patients and secondly if any of these neurons are dying via apoptosis. In our specimens, immuno-histochemistry revealed that there was no difference in the number of somatostatin neurons between the two study groups. Moreover, of the apoptotic cells that were found using the terminal dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) method, none contained somatostatin. It is concluded that while there is apoptotic cell death in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease, it does not seem to occur in neurons which contain somatostatin in any significant amount.