Secretion of full-length tau or tau fragments in a cell culture model

Tau is a microtubule-associated protein that plays an important role in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. Several studies have suggested that tau may be secreted to extracellular medium and may be responsible of spreading of neurodegeneration. The overexpression of tau in cultured non-neuronal cells leads to the secretion of this protein. The proline-rich region of tau may serve as a membrane-binding site during the secretion of the full-length tau molecule. Tau fragments lacking this proline-region are either not secreted or are secreted in a distinct manner to the full-length molecule.