Aging and Alzheimer's disease. Altered cortical serotonergic binding
D. L. Sparks
Sanders-Brown Research Center on Aging, Department of Neurology, University of Kentucky Medical Center, Lexington 40536-0230.
The binding of tritiated serotonin and tritiated spiperone to crude
membrane preparations from human frontal poles was determined in both
controls and subjects with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Using the
dopamine-specific receptor antagonist sulpiride, spiperone binding in the
cortex was shown to be essentially serotonergic. A decline in both
serotonin and spiperone binding was found in normal aging, and an
AD-related decrease was found for spiperone binding only. The AD-related
decrement of spiperone binding occurred irrespective of patient age and
duration of disease. Scatchard analysis indicates that both age- and
disease-related decrements represent a decrease in receptor number.
