Myeloperoxidase-immunoreactive cells are significantly increased in brain areas affected by neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease

Myeloperoxidase (MPO) is a key enzyme in inflammatory and degenerative processes, although conflicting reports have been presented concerning its expression in the brain. We studied the cellular localization of MPO and compared numbers of MPO cells in various brain regions between neurologically healthy individuals and patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) or Alzheimer’s disease (AD; n = 10–25). We also investigated two rodent PD models. MPO immunoreactivity (ir) was detected in monocytes, perivascular macrophages and amoeboid microglia in the human brain parenchyma, whereas no co-localization with glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) ir was observed. In the midbrain, caudate and putamen, we found a significant increase of MPO-immunoreactive cells in PD compared with control brains, whereas in the cerebellum, no difference was apparent. MPO ir was detected neither in neurons nor in occasional small beta-amyloid-immunoreactive plaques in PD or control cases. In the frontal cortex of AD patients, we found significantly more MPO-immunoreactive cells compared with control cases, together with intense MPO ir in extracellular plaques. In the hippocampus of several AD cases, MPO-like ir was observed in some pyramidal neurons. Neither rapid dopamine depletion in the rat PD model, nor slow degeneration of dopamine neurons in MitoPark mice induced the expression of MPO ir in any brain region. MPO mRNA was not detectable with radioactive in situ hybridization in any human or rodent brain area, although myeloid cells from bone marrow displayed clear MPO signals. Our results indicate significant increases of MPO-immunoreactive cells in brain regions affected by neurodegeneration in PD and AD, supporting investigations of MPO inhibitors in novel treatment strategies. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00441-017-2626-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.