Chapter 8 Monoamines and myelin components in aging and dementia disorders

Abstract

Publisher Summary Post-mortem investigations of human brains have revealed interesting changes in normal aging and in dementia disorders. In cerebrovascular disorders (CVD), the dementia is assumed to be caused by the infarctions of the brain, and therefore this form is called “multiinfarction dementia (MID).” Dementia due to primary degenerative disorders is senile dementia (SD), Alzheimer's presenile dementia, Pick's disease, and Huntington's chorea. This chapter discusses the biochemical findings made in a study based on the analysis of the postmortem material of normally aged and dementic individuals.. In a material of 21 normally aged individuals, 22 patients with Alzheimer's disease and nine patients with multiinfarction dementia, biochemical investigations were made on post-mortem brain samples. In brains from patients with Alzheimer dementia, reduced concentrations of dopamine and 5-hydroxytryptamine and of the main metabolites of these transmitters were observed. Choline acetyltransferase is often used as a marker for the cholinergic system of the human brain. The activity of this enzyme was decreased in brains from patients with Alzheimer dementia. Of interest is that in material from MID patients, rather general biochemical changes were found.