title: Lipid Raft Alterations in Aged-Associated Neuropathologies.
abstract: Lipid rafts are membrane microdomains particularly enriched in cholesterol, sphingolipids and saturated fatty acids. These microstructures play a key role in a plethora of mechanisms involved in cell signaling, synapsis, cell-cell communication and cell survival. In the last years, increasing evidence indicate that lipid rafts may be altered in age-related neuropathologies, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson disease even at asymptomatic stages. In particular, important changes in raft lipid composition are observed with the progression of these diseases, then inducing alterations in their physicochemical properties. Furthermore, these phenomena contribute to neuropathological events related to amyloidogenesis, aberrant protein aggregation and toxic cell signalling. In this review, we discuss some relevant data on the age-related molecular changes occurring in lipid rafts since the first stages of these neurodegenerative diseases. Further characterization of specific parameters associated with alterations of these microdomains may provide potential tools of diagnosis and prediction of these neuropathologies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences (RM), University of La Laguna, 38320 Tenerife, Spain. rmarin@ull.edu.es.
authors.forename: Raquel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Marin
authors.forename: Noemí
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fabelo
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fernández-Echevarría
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Canerina-Amaro
authors.forename: Deiene
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Barreto
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Quinto-Alemany
authors.forename: Fátima
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mesa-Herrera
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Díaz
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D000818:Animals; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D021962:Membrane Microdomains / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology