Gelsolin-related Spinal and Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy

Gelsolin-related amyloidosis (familial amyloidosis, Finnish type) is a rare disorder, reported worldwide in kindreds carrying a G654A or G654T gelsolin gene mutation. Facial palsy, mild peripheral neuropathy, and corneal lattice dystrophy are characteristic, but atrophic bulbar palsy, ataxia of gait, and minor cognitive impairment may occur. In histological and immunohistochemical studies of the central nervous system in 4 patients with a G654A gelsolin mutation, we found widespread spinal, cerebral, and meningeal amyloid angiopathy, with deposition of gelsolin-related amyloid (AGel). Marked extravascular deposits occurred in the dura, spinal nerve roots, and sensory ganglia. The amyloid deposits were also variably immunoreactive for apolipoprotein E (ApoE), alpha1-antichymotrypsin (alpha1-ACT), and cystatin C (Cys C). Cerebral perivascular fibrinogen immunoreactivity was occasionally noted. The patients showed posterior column degeneration and diffuse loss of myelin in the centrum semiovale with perivascular accentuation. Postmortem magnetic resonance imaging, performed on 1 patient, showed white matter lesions, colocalizing with the histological abnormalities. Our study shows that deposition of AGel in the spinal and cerebral blood vessel walls, meninges, as well as spinal nerve roots and sensory ganglia is an essential feature of this form of systemic amyloidosis and may contribute to the central nervous system symptoms.