Cortical distribution of gangliosides in Alzheimer's disease.

In Alzheimer's disease, all ganglio-series gangliosides (GM1, GD1a, GD1b and GT1b) were found to be decreased in temporal and frontal cortex, and nucleus basalis of Meynert. In addition, in Alzheimer's disease simple gangliosides (GM2, GM3) were elevated in frontal and parietal cortex, possibly correlating to accelerated lysosomal degradation of gangliosides and/or astrogliosis occurring during neuronal death.

Regional distribution of brain gangliosides in Alzheimer's disease.

In this study, brain gangliosides of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD, N = 5) were analyzed and compared with control human brains (C, N = 3). Gangliosides were analyzed in seven brain regions: cerebral cortex (frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital), hippocampus, basal telencephalon and frontal white matter. The results demonstrated gangliosides to be decreased in the majority of regions analyzed, however, a significant decrease in gangliosides (nmol LBSA/mg proteins or g fresh weight) in frontal cortex and white matter (P less than 0.

Brain gangliosides in Alzheimer's disease.

The results demonstrated a statistically significant decrease of ganglio-series gangliosides (GTlb, GDlb, GDla, GMl, nmol lipid-bound sialic acid/mg DNA) in frontal and temporal cortex and basal telencephalon of brains with Alzheimer's disease (AD) in comparison to control brains (P less than 0.05). In addition, frontal and parietal cortex also showed somewhat elevated concentrations of simple gangliosides (GM2, GM3, GM4).