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Table 1. Characteristics of the Subjects, Treatment of Hypothalamic Tissue, and Characteristics of Hcrt Cells

Subject     Sex     Age     Cause of Death     Antibody     Time in Fix (Years)     Hypothalmic Gliosis (Cells/mm2)     Thalamic Gliosis (Cells/mm2)     Number of Hcrt Cells     Disease Onset Age     Medications     Cataplexy     Narcoleptics                                                                 NA     F     63     adenocarcinoma     3     5     25.5     3.4     4,272     20     clomipramine Vivalan     +     NB     M     49     cv     2     4.5     27.2     5.9     3,073     18     Dexedrine, Vivactil, GHB     +     NC     M     60     sepsis     1     4.2     27.2     5.9     6,795     23     Ritalin Desoxyn     +     ND     M     86     pulmonary     2     12     17.0     5.1     9,698     35     Ritalin     -     Controls     CA     M     41     cv, HIV     1     1                 79,575                       CB     F     54     liver failure     1     0.5                 61,050                       CC     F     42     AML/DIC     1     1     8.5     0     73,424                       CD     M     n/a     nonneurol     1     2     0.0     3.4     83,121                       CE     M     73     pulmonary, cv     1     5     6.8     4.3     n/a                       CF     M     n/a     nonneurol     1     16                 72,950                       CG     M     n/a     nonneurol     3     16                 77,727                       CH     M     38     lung cancer     1     2     8.5     2.6     n/a                       CI     F     29     nonneurol     1     2     0.9     5.9     n/a                       CJ     M     n/a     nonneurol     3     2                 72,457                       CK     F     83          3     0.2                 56,000                       CL     M     50     sepsis     3     4                 50,576

cv, cardiovascular; AML, acute myelocytic leukemia; DIC, disseminated intravascular coagulation. ''nonneurol'' indicates no history of neurological illness and no specified cause of death. Note that the elderly nonnarcoleptic Alzheimers patient whose brain we analyzed (subject CK) had a relatively preserved Hcrt neuronal population, in contrast to the 85%–95% loss of Hcrt neurons seen in all of the narcoleptics, including one as young as 49 (subject NB). The hypothalamus was not completely available in CE, CH, and CI, so the total numbers of Hcrt neurons could not be determined. Antibodies 1 and 2 indicate Hcrt-1 and -2 antibodies from Oncogene Research Products; 3 refers to a polyclonal antiserum raised against a synthetic hypocretin-2.

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