Brain research
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Noradrenaline, dopamine, homovanillic acid (HVA), choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) levels were measured in post-mortem brains from 8 cases of pre-senile Alzheimer-type dementia (ATD), 5 cases of senile ATD, 4 cases of Down's syndrome aged 53-57 years, one 27-year-old case of Down's syndrome and 13 controls. In the controls, the concentration of noradrenaline in hypothalamus (P less than 0.05) and mamillary body (P less than 0.02) decreased with age. ⋯ In the olfactory tubercle in ATD the level of HVA was unaltered but the activity of ChAT was decreased (P less than 0.01). ChAT activity was reduced in pre-senile ATD (P less than 0.001), the older Down's cases (P less than 0.01) but not the young Down's case, and senile ATD (P less than 0.001) in the temporal cortex and in pre-senile ATD (P less than 0.001) and the older Down's cases (P less than 0.001) but not senile ATD in the caudate nucleus.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)