Amyloid precursor protein, lipofuscin accumulation and expression of autophagy markers in aged bovine brain

Autophagy is a highly regulated process involving the bulk degradation of cytoplasmic macromolecules and organelles in mammalian cells via the lysosomal system. Dysregulation of autophagy is implicated in the pathogenesis of many neurodegenerative diseases and integrity of the autophagosomal - lysosomal network appears to be critical in the progression of aging. Our aim was to survey the expression of autophagy markers and Amyloid precursor protein (APP) in aged bovine brains. For our study, we collected samples from the brain of old (aged 11-20 years) and young (aged 1-5 years) Podolic dairy cows. Formalin-fixed and paraffin embedded sections were stained with routine and special staining techniques. Primary antibodies for APP and autophagy markers such as Beclin-1 and LC3 were used to perform immunofluorescence and Western blot analysis.