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Cellular Distribution and Expression of Cortical Acetylcholine Receptors in Aging and Alzheimer's Disease a
Author(s) -
SCHRÖDER HANNSJÖRG,
GIACOBINI EZIO,
STRUBLE ROBERT G.,
ZILLES KARL,
MAELICKE ALFRED,
LUITEN PAUL G. M.,
STROSBERG ANDRÉ D.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1991.tb00215.x
Subject(s) - acetylcholine , acetylcholine receptor , neuroscience , receptor , alzheimer's disease , muscarinic acetylcholine receptor , distribution (mathematics) , chemistry , biology , medicine , disease , mathematics , mathematical analysis
Ligand binding studies show marked reductions of nicotinic, but not of muscarinic binding sites in Alzheimer's disease. Using monoclonal antibodies we studied immunohistochemically the expression of the respective receptor proteins in the frontal cortex of middle-aged (55 +/- 5 yr) controls, age-matched controls (73 +/- 6 yr), and patients with Alzheimer's disease (74 +/- 5 yr). Density of nicotinic cholinoceptive neurons was 8000/mm3 for middle-aged controls and 4000/mm3 for age-matched controls, but only 900/mm3 in Alzheimer's brains (p less than 0.0001). Densities of muscarinic cholinoceptive and of Nissl-stained neurons were not significantly different between the groups, pointing to a selective decrease of nicotinic receptor protein expression in cortical neurons with aging and in Alzheimer's disease.