Elsevier

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 275, Issue 2, 12 November 1999, Pages 152-154
Neuroscience Letters

Gluthatione level is altered in lymphoblasts from patients with familial Alzheimer's disease

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3940(99)00751-XGet rights and content

Abstract

Intracellular levels of glutathione (GSH), glutathione disulphide (GSSG), glutamic acid and γ-glutamyl cysteine synthetase (γ-GCS) were measured in lymphoblast lines from patients with familial and sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD) and from age-matched controls. Lymphoblasts carrying presenilins (PS) and amyloid precursor protein (APP) genes mutations showed significantly decreased GSH content with respect to controls. Levels of GSSG and glutamic acid, as well as the activity of γ-GCS were not significantly different in lymphoblasts carrying genes mutations as compared with control cells. These results indicate that even peripheral cells not involved in the neurodegenerative process of AD show altered GSH content when carrying PS and APP genes mutations. The provided data appear to be in accordance with the known alteration of GSH levels in central nervous system and strengthen the hypothesis of oxidative stress as an important, possibly crucial mechanism in the pathogenesis of AD.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from MURST, ex quota 40% and Telethon, project no. C.27.

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