This volume contains the proceedings of the ninth "Colloque medecine et recherche" of the Fondation IPSEN devoted to research on Alzheimer's disease. This symposium was held in Lyon on June 21, 1993, on the topic, "Amyloid Protein Precursors in Development, Aging and Alzheimer's Disease". The choice of this venue and of this particular subject was not a matter of chance. As far as the history of medicine and neurology is concerned, Lyon is doubtless one of the most famous cities in France and the F ondation IPSEN had to organize one of its meetings in this city which has been regarded for centuries as a major crossroads. Regarding the topic, the amyloid story is at the center of the debate in the field of Alzheimer's studies. For nearly 10 years, "alzheimerology" has more or less been intertwined with "amyloidology". The purification and the sequencing of the beta/ A4 peptide in amyloid congophilic angiopathy (Glenner and Wong 1984) and in Alzheimer's disease (Masters et al. 1985) were the first steps toward the numerous successes realised in the last few years. The discovery of the amyloid precursor protein (APP), the localisation of its gene on chromosome 21 and the sequencing of its cDNA in 1987 (Kang et al. 1987; Goldgaber et al. 1987; Robakis et al.

Inhalt
Strategic Thoughts on the Alzheimer's Disease Amyloid Protein Precursor: The Way Forward.- Drosophila Appl Gene and APPL Protein: A Model System to Study the Function of the APP Protein Family.- Amyloid ?A4 of Alzheimer's Disease: Structural Requirements for Folding and Aggregation.- Production of Amyloid ? Protein from Normal and Mutated Amyloid ² Protein Precursors.- Mechanism of Cerebral Amyloidosis in Alzheimer's Disease.- Effects of Fragments of the ?-Amyloid Protein on Hippocampal Neurons in Young and Aged Rats: An Electrophysiological Study.- The Role of the Extracellular Matrix in Regulating the Function of the Amyloid Protein Precursor of Alzheimer's Disease.- Studies of the Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) in Brain: Regulation of APP-Ligand Binding.- The Biological Function of Amyloid ?/A4 Protein Precursor.- Processing of Alzheimer A?-Amyloid Precursor Protein: Cell Biology, Regulation, and Role in Alzheimer's Disease.- Studies of APP Biology: Analysis of APP Secretion and Characterization of an APP Homologue, APLP2.- Transmembrane APP is Distributed into Two Pools and Associated with Polymerized Cytoskeleton.- Isolation and Characterisation of Novel Metalloproteases from Embryonic Mouse Hippocampus.- A Transgenic Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease.- Amyloid in Alzheimer's Disease and Animal Models.- The Roles of Zinc and Copper in the Function and Metabolism of the Amyloid Protein Precursor Superfamily.- The Diverse Molecular Nature of Inherited Alzheimer's Disease.- Genetic Variability and Alzheimer's Disease.- Genetic Defects in Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders.- APP Gene Mutations in Familial Alzheimer's Disease in Sweden.- Aging, Energy and Alzheimer's Disease.- Molecular Biology and Genetics of HumanPrion Diseases and PrP Amyloid Plaque Formation.