Summary: A recent study examines whether playing youth soccer causes hazardous brain protein buildup. Researchers found no connection between phone sports and excessive beta protein in a crucial storage location after examining 174 donated brains, including former high school and college players.
Instead, the protein deposition was linked to aging more than brain injury. The results urge caution when interpreting gentle head changes as disease evidence.
Important Information
- No Link Found: People football players did not display an increased p-tau in the CA2 brain.
- Age Factor: Mental protein accumulation was more closely linked to aging than sports.
- Caution advised: Brain studies ‘ results highlight difficulties in distinguising between illness and normal aging.
Northwestern University is the cause
Some researchers and advocates have warned that a particular protein in the brain may have been built up as a result of playing contact sports like football and hockey, raising the risk of brain diseases like Alzheimer’s disease or chronic traumatic encephalopathy ( CTE ) in recent years.
However, a recent Northwestern Medicine study of 174 donated brains, including those from ex-high school and college football people, disproves that idea.  ,
The little of it is that, in persons who played football at the amateur levels, there is no increase in this protein in this particular brain area. It throws a little bit of warm water into the existing CTE narrative,” said related author Dr. Rudolph Castellani, a neuropathologist and professor of pathology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.  ,
The research was just published in the , Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
It raises significant questions about how scientists interpret simple brain changes caused by aging, Alzheimer’s disease, and repeated mind impacts.
How the study was carried out
The Lieber Institute for Brain Development, which collects head donations from people who have medical conditions ( such as dementia, major depression, common anxiety, substance use disorder, etc. ), was the subject of the study’s analysis of brain tissue. throughout their entire lives.
Of the 174 samples taken from older adult males ( with a middle age of 65 at death ), 48 men played football in high school or college, and 126 men had never played a game that involved email or incident before.  ,
The research excluded the opinions of professional sports.  ,
The researchers concentrated on a smaller memory-related area in the hippocampus called CA2, which is located near the brain. In a variety of settings, including standard aging, Alzheimer’s disease, and in people with a history of repeated head impacts, phosphorylated tau (p-tau ) protein, which is frequently present in neurodegenerative disease, has been found to accumulate in this region.
However, the results suggest that contact sports don’t typically have p-tau formation in CA2. The researchers discovered no evidence of an overrepresentation of CA2 p-tau in people who have played basketball before. P-tau was mathematically associated with years in this area, but it wasn’t.
The book here is a transfer to the zero assumption that, in this area, there may not be a connection between repeated brain injuries and p-tau buildup, according to Castellani, who is also the neuropathology core director of the Northwestern University Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
We’re examining whether p-tau in CA2 might be a result of normal aging or a non-specific response to environmental factors, rather than assuming it is inherently pathological.
Additionally, the study raises more pressing issues for research into neurodegeneration. The authors emphasize how challenging it is to give subtle pathological findings clinical significance.
The paper’s section,” Knowledge gaps and implications for future research,” demonstrates how difficult it is for even expert consensus groups to define CTE in a clinically relevant way.
Castellani said,” Modern studies on CTE may be pushing the boundaries of what is regarded as normal variability in the human brain.” This work serves as a reminder to interpret pathology cautiously without a strong clinical correlation.
The authors urge the scientific community to reexamine preconceived notions about what constitutes neurodegenerative disease in order to better understand how p-tau affects aging and head injuries.
About this news about neurology and CTE research
Author: Kristin Samuelson
Source: Northwestern University
Contact: Kristin Samuelson – Northwestern University
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Private access.
Rudolph Castellani and colleagues published a study titled” Postmortem tau in the CA2 region of the hippocampus in older adult men who played youth amateur American football.” Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease
Abstract
In older adult men who played youth amateur American football, there was a postmortem tau in the CA2 region of the hippocampus.
Background
Researchers have discovered that hyperphosphorylated tau (p-tau ) accumulates in the Cornu Ammonis 2 subfield ( CA2 ) of the hippocampus with age, preferentially in primary age-related tau astrogliopathy, in association with early Alzheimer’s disease, and preferentially in chronic traumatic encephalopathy neuropathologic change.
Objective
Examine the possible link between high school football played in the American style and preferential p-tau in the CA2 region of the hippocampus.
Methods
Postmortem brain tissue samples were obtained from 174 men at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development ( median age at death = 65 years, range: 50 to 96 ). 48 ( 27.6 % ) of the population participated in football, and 126 ( no known history of participation in contact or collision sports ).
Results
About half of the candidates were rated modified Braak stage I ( 47.1 % ) and modified CERAD stage 0 ( 52.0 % ). Preferential CA2 p-tau was present in 29.9 % of cases. The age difference between those who had and did not have preferential CA2 p-tau was 75 and 63, respectively ( Cohen’s d = 1.27, large effect ).
The age differences between the sport history groups were uniform ( p = 0.607 ). Older age groups ( odds ratio]OR ] = 3.42 and 3.3.23 ) and those with higher modified CERAD scores ( OR = 1.78 and 1.1.48 ) were significantly more likely to have preferential CA2 p-tau in both univariate and multivariate logistic regressions. Football participation and preferential CA2 p-tau were not significant factors.
Conclusions
There was no discernible connection between high school football participation and preferential CA2 p-tau identified after death. These findings support other research theories that suggest that preferential CA2 p-tau is related to aging and neuropathologic change in Alzheimer’s disease.
