title: Evidence against increased glycoxidation in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: Neuropathological findings of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are intracellular (neurofibrillary tangles) and extracellular (senile plaques) filamentous protein aggregates. Non-enzymatic glycation has been proposed as a primary factor in this pathogenesis, leading to increased insolubility of tau protein and beta-amyloid. The aim of our study was to test the hypothesis that increased glycoxidation, i.e. increased levels of oxidized products from non-enzymatic glycation could be found in brains of patients with AD and of aged Down syndrome (DS) subjects with abundant AD-like neuropathological lesions. Frontal cortex specimens were assayed for pentosidine (Pent) and N-epsilon-carboxymethyl-lysine (CML) by reversed phase high performance liquid chromatographical methods. Pent and CML levels in AD (n = 10; Pent, 35.5 +/- 4.84 mumol/g wet-weight tissue; CML, 135.2 +/- 5.0 mumol/g wet-weight tissue) were comparable to DS (n = 9; Pent, 36.4 +/- 3.21; CML, 133.5 +/- 4.7) and controls (n = 10; Pent, 35.2 +/- 3.55; CML, 136.9 +/- 3.3). We conclude that the results are not compatible with the concept of increased glycoxidation in AD compared to normal aging.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Seidl
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Schuller
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cairns
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lubec
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase / Q000378:metabolism; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D006031:Glycosylation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016874:Neurofibrillary Tangles / Q000201:enzymology / Q000473:pathology; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction
chemical_list: D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase