Elsevier

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 33, Issue 3, 13 December 1982, Pages 311-315
Neuroscience Letters

Extensive loss of choline acetyltransferase activity is not reflected by neuronal loss in the nucleus of meynert in Alzheimer's disease

https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3940(82)90391-3Get rights and content

Abstract

Choline acetyltransferase activity in discrete tissue punches from the nucleus of Meynert and in tissue from the temporal cortex was reduced by at least 90% and 75%, respectively, in 5 out of 6 elderly cases of Alzheimer's disease compared with 5 normal cases. In contrast, estimates of neurone density in these same cases revealed that there was only, on average, a 33% neurone loss in the nucleus of Meynert in Alzheimer's disease. These observations suggest that a key pathological change in Alzheimer's disease may be the ‘down regulation’ of transmitter-specific enzyme production in cholinergic neurones, and that neurone loss itself may be a secondary feature of the disease.

Cited by (0)

View full text