title: Distribution of peripheral lymphocytes in Alzheimer patients and controls.
abstract: Deficient immunoregulation has been postulated to play a role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's dementia. Recently, lymphopenia was reported to be more prevalent in Alzheimer patients than in control subjects. In addition, a decreasing number of total lymphocytes was found to be significantly correlated with increasing severity of dementia. In an attempt to replicate these findings, we studied 55 Alzheimer patients and 41 healthy controls of comparable age and gender, but found no significant difference in the distribution of total lymphocytes between these groups. Furthermore, total lymphocytes were not significantly correlated with dementia severity. Our findings, therefore, do not lend further support to an immune hypothesis for Alzheimer's dementia.
authors.affiliation: Minneapolis VA Medical Center, GRECC Program (11G), MN 55417.
authors.forename: M W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Dysken
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Minichiello
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Skare
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Little
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Molchan
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sunderland
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000097:blood; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone