Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common late life dementia characterized by loss of memory and multiple cognitive impairments. Our recent investigation of gene expression profiles of transcripts in late onset AD patient brain revealed that disruption of cytoskeletal elements is one of the major cellular mechanisms involved in AD pathogenesis (Reddy et al 2000, SFN abstract #83.4). Preliminary characterization of differentially expressed cytoskeletal genes in AD brains suggested that recently described synaptopodin gene, based on its expression specificity is a potential candidate playing a role in AD pathophysiology. Northern blot analysis of 16 different normal human tissues including brain and non-CNS tissues for mRNA revealed that synaptopodin is expressed abundantly in brain, heart and skeletal muscle. Synaptopodin has two transcripts. One 4.4 kb transcript is predominantly expressed in brain, heart and skeletal muscle, while the other 5 kb transcript expressed in non-CNS tissues. Immunohistochemical exam...