Age-Related Defects in Erythrocyte 2,3-Diphosphoglycerate Metabolism in Dementia

Abstract

Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common dementing illness. Metabolic defects in the brain with aging contribute to the pathogenesis of AD. These changes can be found systematically and thus can be used as potential biomarkers. Erythrocytes (RBCs) are passive "reporter cells" that are not well studied in AD. In the present study, we analyzed an array of glycolytic and related enzymes and intermediates in RBCs from patients with AD and non-Alzheimer dementia (NA), age-matched controls (AC) and young adult controls (YC). AD is characterized by higher activities of hexokinase, phosphofructokinase, and bisphosphoglycerate mutase and bisphosphoglycerate phosphatase in RBCs. In our study, we observed that glycolytic and related enzymes displayed significantly lower activities in AC. However, similar or significantly higher activities were observed in AD and NA groups as compared to YC group. 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (2,3-DPG) levels were significantly decreased in AD and NA patients. The pattern of changes between groups in the above indices strongly correlates with each other. Collectively, our data suggested that AD and NA patients are associated with chronic disturbance of 2,3-DPG metabolism in RBCs. These defects may play a pivotal role in physiological processes, which predispose elderly subjects to AD and NA.

Department(s)

Chemistry

Keywords and Phrases

2,3-diphosphoglycerate; Erythrocyte; Glycolysis; Late onset Alzheimer disease; Non-Alzheimer's dementia; Oxygen affinity of hemoglobin

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

2152-5250

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2013 International Society on Aging and Disease, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Oct 2013

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