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02.07.2026TEM and SEM microscopies contribute to the identification of relevant biomarkers in neurodegenerative diseases
Eva Prats, head of the Electron Microscopy and Related Techniques Unit at the CCiTUB, in collaboration with researchers from the Department of Biochemistry and Physiology of the University of Barcelona, UBneuro, CIBERNED, Hospital Clínic and IDIBAPS, has participated in a study showing that the cerebrospinal fluid sediment, usually discarded, may contain relevant biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
The study, published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, demonstrates that these sediments contain a large amount of components of cerebral origin, highlighting the value of a fraction of cerebrospinal fluid that has so far been little explored.
By obtaining semithin sections of 500 nm thickness from these sediments, the solid fraction of intraventricular CSF samples obtained post mortem from a case of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and a case of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) was analyzed.
The application of electron microscopy techniques, such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), allowed the identification of specific structures, such as wasteosomes, psammoma bodies and other cellular debris.
Likewise, the combination of SEM with X-ray energy‑dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) enabled the elemental characterization of the structures present in the samples.
On the other hand, immunofluorescence analysis revealed the presence of tau protein and Aβ peptide in the sediments from the AD case, as well as the presence of tau in those corresponding to the PSP case, in accordance with the characteristic proteinopathies of each of these diseases.
The combined use of 500 nm semithin sections obtained from CSF sediment and the integration of the different techniques available at the Electron Microscopy and Related Techniques Unit made it possible to correlate the identified structures with their ultrastructural and compositional characteristics.
References
Alsina, R.; Riba, M.; Sartorio, M.; Romera, C.; Vilaplana, B.; Prats, E.; Molina-Porcel, L.; del Valle, J.; Pelegrí, C.; Vilaplana, J. «Cerebrospinal Fluid Sediments as a Novel Tool for Potential Biomarkers of Neurodegenerative Diseases». International Journal of Molecular Sciences 27, no. 8: 3692. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms27083692