title: Cerebrospinal fluid carnitine levels in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: We assessed free carnitine (FC) and acylcarnitine esters (AC) in both cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma from 24 patients with diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease (AD), and from 28 healthy matched-controls. We found no significant correlation between FC and AC levels in CSF. FC and AC levels in CSF did not differ significantly between AD patients and controls, but plasma FC levels were significantly lower in AD patients. CSF and plasma FC and AC levels did not correlate with age, age at onset of AD, duration of AD, and scores of the Minimental State Examination of Folstein. Although these results suggest that CSF carnitine levels are apparently unrelated with the risk for AD, the trend of the FC/AC ratio to be higher in AD patients might suggest the possibility of a lower carnitine acetyltransferase activity in AD, as previously reported in some brain areas.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Hospital Doce de Octubre, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Rubio
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: de Bustos
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Molina
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Jiménez-Jiménez
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Benito-León
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Martín
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Campos
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ortí-Pareja
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cabrera-Valdivia
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Arenas
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000097:blood / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000523:psychology; D002331:Carnitine / Q000097:blood / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012016:Reference Values
chemical_list: D002331:Carnitine