title: "Autocannibalism" of choline-containing membrane phospholipids in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease-A hypothesis.
abstract: The selective vulnerability of certain cholinergic neurons in Alzheimer's disease could reflect a unique response of these neurons to a neurotoxic factor. Alternatively the etiologic factor causing the disease could affect the brain generally, and the selective death of the cholinergic neurons could occur because they have a biochemical property that makes them least able to withstand this factor. One such property might be their tendency to utilize choline-phospholipids both as a membrane constituent and as a source of free choline for acetylcholine synthesis: perhaps when choline levels in the brain's extracellular fluid are too low to sustain acetylcholine release, these neurons break down their choline-phospholipids more rapidly than they can synthesize them, thus changing membrane structure and, ultimately, neuronal viability.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neural and Endocrine Regulation, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, U.S.A.
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Wurtman
authors.forename: J K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Blusztajn
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Maire