Figure 1.

Tau pathology in survivors of a single moderate or severe TBI. (A) Typically, controls showed sparse P-tau immunoreactive neurofibrillary tangles and neurites localized to the entorhinal cortex (i; 59-year-old male, no history of TBI). In contrast, patients surviving a year or more from single moderate or severe TBI showed more extensive neurofibrillary, neuritic and glial P-tau immunoreactive profiles, with occasional clusters around cortical vessels in a ‘CTE-like’ manner (ii; 59-year-old male 17-year survival from single severe TBI), and extending beyond the entorhinal cortex to involve wider grey matter regions including the hippocampus (iii; 87-year-old male 5-year survival from single severe TBI). (B) While the proportion of patients in TBI and controls with tau pathologies was similar, following TBI the extent and distribution of pathology were considerably greater. Thus, using a semiquantitative scheme to score tau distribution, while all but four controls showed no or only localized tau pathology (score 0 or 1), in a majority of TBI cases (9 of 15) P-tau pathology was widespread (score 2 or 3; P = 0.0035; χ²). All sections stained for PHF-1. Scale bar = 100 µm.