Brain tissue from 57 pathologically confirmed AD patients and 20 non-AD “control” individuals were obtained postmortem from the Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. For each individual sample, portions of medial temporal gyrus (Brodmann area 21) and medial frontal gyrus (Brodmann area 46) were subjected to extraction of RNA using RNAzolB (Tel-test, Friendswood, TX), as previously described (Liu et al., 2006). cDNA was prepared using SuperScript First strand cDNA synthesis (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) for reverse transcription-PCR reaction. cDNA samples were used to analyze allelic and alternative splicing isoform expression (described in the following section). Additional cDNA was synthesized from total RNA from amygdala, caudate, putamen, cerebellum, cortex, hippocampus, hypothalamus, substantial nigra, heart, intestine, kidney, leukocyte, liver, lung, muscle, spleen, and testis purchased from BD Bioscience Clontech (Palo Alto, CA).
