title: Characteristics of lymphocyte chromatin from Alzheimer's disease patients and from young and old normal individuals.
abstract: We have examined chromatin in lymphocytes from patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and from normal individuals of a range of ages. We have found that the neucleosome repeat length does not vary with age for normal individuals over the range 24-78 years and that there is no difference between the value for AD cells (mean and standard deviation, 202 +/- 7 base pairs, bp) and for normals (207 +/- 5 bp). The rate of digestion of chromatin in lymphocyte nuclei by micrococcal nuclease does not appear to differ significantly between old and young normals and AD patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, UMIST, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Vallis
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Neary
authors.forename: R F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Itzhaki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000378:metabolism*; D002843:Chromatin / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008836:Micrococcal Nuclease / Q000378:metabolism; D008875:Middle Aged; D009707:Nucleosomes / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D002843:Chromatin; D009707:Nucleosomes; D008836:Micrococcal Nuclease