Toggle Main Menu Toggle Search

Open Access padlockePrints

Convergent cholinergic activities in aging and Alzheimer's disease

Lookup NU author(s): Emeritus Professor Elaine Perry, Dr Janet Kerwin, Dr Margaret Piggott, Dr Jennifer Court, Professor Pamela Shaw, Emeritus Professor Robert Perry

Downloads

Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.


Abstract

Choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activities have been examined postmortem in a series of 66 individuals with no evidence of CNS disease, ranging in age from 24 gestational weeks to 95 years and in 33 cases of Alzheimer's disease (AD) aged 57-89 years. In the normal human hippocampus a striking and highly significant age-related decline in ChAT occurred from middle to old age (between 40 and 100 years); a trend apparent at a later stage and to a lesser extent in the hippocampal gyrus. In both areas enzyme activity in AD was inversely related to age at death; reductions compared with the normal were on average 70-80% in the 60-70 year old groups compared with 30-40% in the 80-90 year old group. A similar trend was apparent with respect to acetylcholinesterase (AchE) histochemical activity associated with fibers and terminals (predominantly cholinergic and concentrated in CA3 and 4 of the hippocampus) but not with reactive perikarya (considered to be noncholinergic) present in both hippocampus and cortex. These data indicate that the normal aging human hippocampus may constitute a useful model for investigating the dysfunction or degeneration of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons in AD.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Perry EK, Johnson M, Kerwin JM, Piggott MA, Court JA, Shaw PJ, Ince PG, Brown A, Perry RH

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Neurobiology of Aging

Year: 1992

Volume: 13

Issue: 3

Pages: 393-400

Print publication date: 01/05/1992

ISSN (print): 0197-4580

ISSN (electronic): 1558-1497

Publisher: Elsevier

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0197-4580(92)90113-C

DOI: 10.1016/0197-4580(92)90113-C


Altmetrics

Altmetrics provided by Altmetric


Share