Publications by authors named "Robert J Hageman"

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) leads to neurological impairment, with no satisfactory treatments available. Classical ketogenic diets (KD), which reduce reliance on carbohydrates and provide ketones as fuel, have neuroprotective potential, but their high fat content reduces compliance, and experimental evidence suggests they protect juvenile brain against TBI, but not adult brain, which would strongly limit their applicability in TBI. We designed a new-KD with a fat to carbohydrate plus protein ratio of 2:1, containing medium chain triglycerides (MCT), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), low glycaemic index carbohydrates, fibres and the ketogenic amino acid leucine, and evaluated its neuroprotective potential in adult TBI.

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Synapse loss and synaptic dysfunction are pathological processes already involved in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Synapses consist principally of neuronal membranes, and the neuronal and synaptic losses observed in AD have been linked to the degeneration and altered composition and structure of these membranes. Consequently, synapse loss and membrane-related pathology provide viable targets for intervention in AD.

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Diet is an important lifestyle factor implicated in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD), but so far it is not fully elucidated to which nutrients the suggested protective effect of diet can be attributed. Recent evidence obtained in the amyloid-β 1-42 (Aβ(42)) infusion model in rats has shown that a multi-nutrient intervention known as Fortasyn™ Connect (FC) may protect the central cholinergic system against Aβ(42)-induced toxicity. FC comprises the nutritional precursors and cofactors for membrane synthesis, viz.

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Background: Folate, vitamin B-12, and vitamin B-6 are essential nutritional components in one-carbon metabolism and are required for methylation capacity. The availability of these vitamins may therefore modify methylation of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) to phosphatidylcholine (PC) by PE-N-methyltransferase (PEMT) in the liver. It has been suggested that PC synthesis by PEMT plays an important role in the transport of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) like docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) from the liver to plasma and possibly other tissues.

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Recent evidence indicates that supplementation with a specific combination of nutrients may affect cell membrane synthesis and composition. To investigate whether such nutrients may also modify the physical properties of membranes, and affect membrane-bound processes involved in signal transduction pathways, we studied the effects of nutrient supplementation on G protein-coupled receptor activation in vitro. In particular, we investigated muscarinic receptors, which are important for the progression of memory deterioration and pathology of Alzheimer's disease.

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Choline is an important component of the human diet and is required for the endogenous synthesis of choline-containing phospholipids, acetylcholine and betaine. Choline can also be synthesised de novo by the sequential methylation of phosphatidylethanolamine to phosphatidylcholine. Vitamins B6, B12 and folate can enhance methylation capacity and therefore could influence choline availability not only by increasing endogenous choline synthesis but also by reducing choline utilisation.

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