title: A severe loss of choline acetyltransferase in the frontal cortex of Alzheimer patients carrying apolipoprotein epsilon 4 allele.
abstract: We measured the activities of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) in the post mortem frontal cortex in 32 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients with different apolipoprotein E (apoE) genotypes. The ChAT values were significantly lower for the AD patients with 2 epsilon 4 alleles than for those with 0 epsilon 4 (ANOVA, P < 0.05). The ChAT activities of AD patients carrying 2 or 1 epsilon 4 alleles and those without the epsilon 4 allele also differed significantly: 16.3 +/- 15.2 versus 30.5 +/- 20.6 pmol/mg protein per min, ANOVA, P < 0.05. However, the AD patients carrying the epsilon 4 allele were significantly younger than those with 0 epsilon 4 allele. The study indicates that AD patients carrying the epsilon 4 allele have a more severe cholinergic deficit than the AD patients without the epsilon 4 allele.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Kuopio, Finland.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Soininen
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kosunen
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Helisalmi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mannermaa
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Paljärvi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Talasniemi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ryynänen
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Riekkinen
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000483:Alleles; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics*; D053327:Apolipoprotein E4; D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000235:genetics*; D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000201:enzymology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male
chemical_list: D053327:Apolipoprotein E4; D001057:Apolipoproteins E; D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase