Decreased phospholipase A(2) activity in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with dementia.
June 29th, 2008 | by admin |Decreased phospholipase A(2) activity in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with dementia.
Phospholipase A(2) (PLA(2)) is involved in important aspects of dementia, for example neurotransmission and memory processing, membrane function, choline availability, and antioxidative defense. Reduced PLA(2)-activity has been reported so far in blood samples and postmortem neuronal tissue in Alzheimer disease. For the first time, we studied PLA(2) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in Alzheimer disease (AD), vascular (VD), and mixed Alzheimer/vascular dementia (MD). Intracellular PLA(2) was assessed in CSF of 16 AD, 12 VD, 15 MD patients, and 19 healthy control subjects. A fluorometric assay was applied using the PLA(2)-specific substrate NBDC6-HPC. Significantly reduced PLA(2) activity was not only found in AD, but also in VD and MD. This finding was independent of demographic co-variates and medication. PLA(2) results in CSF corroborate previous findings of impaired PLA(2) function in Alzheimer\’s disease and extend these to patients with VD. They are likely to reflect an involvement of PLA(2) impairment in a variety of pathomechanisms crucial in different dementia subtypes, in which disruption of cholinergic neurotransmission and disturbance of intact membrane function appear to be the key mechanisms.
Smesny S, Stein S, Willhardt I, Lasch J, Sauer H.
Department of Psychiatry, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Philosophenweg 3, 07743, Jena, Germany, stefan.smesny@med.uni-jena.de.