Tau, Diabetes and Insulin

Adv Exp Med Biol. 2019:1184:259-287. doi: 10.1007/978-981-32-9358-8_21.

Abstract

Tau protein which was discovered in 1975 [310] became of great interest when it was identified as the main component of neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), a pathological feature in the brain of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) [39, 110, 232]. Tau protein is expressed mainly in the brain as six isoforms generated by alternative splicing [46, 97]. Tau is a microtubule associated proteins (MAPs) and plays a role in microtubules assembly and stability, as well as diverse cellular processes such as cell morphogenesis, cell division, and intracellular trafficking [49]. Additionally, Tau is involved in much larger neuronal functions particularly at the level of synapses and nuclei [11, 133, 280]. Tau is also physiologically released by neurons [233] even if the natural function of extracellular Tau remains to be uncovered (see other chapters of the present book).

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Brain / cytology
  • Brain / metabolism
  • Brain / pathology
  • Diabetes Mellitus / metabolism*
  • Diabetes Mellitus / pathology
  • Humans
  • Insulin / metabolism*
  • Microtubules / chemistry
  • Microtubules / metabolism
  • Neurons / cytology
  • Neurons / metabolism
  • Neurons / pathology
  • tau Proteins / chemistry
  • tau Proteins / metabolism*

Substances

  • Insulin
  • tau Proteins