Atomic force microscopy of ex vivo amyloid fibrils

Abstract

Here, we report a study of ex vivo amyloid fibrils formed, respectively, by the Leu174Ser Apolipoprotein A-I (ApoA-I-LS) variant and by β2-microglobulin (β2-m) (Relini et al., J. Biol. Chem. 281:16521– 16529, 2006; Relini et al., Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1690:33–41, 2004). In the work on ApoA-I-LS, the AFM has been used to characterize and compare the morphologies of amyloid fibrils isolated from two different patients, while in the study on β2-m our investigation provided important information about the factors that can promote the aggregation in vivo.