Parkinson's Disease Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Parkinson's Disease, including details on symptoms, treatment, genetics, medication.

Increase of total homocysteine concentration in cerebrospinal fluid in patients with Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

Isobe C, Murata T, Sato C, Terayama Y

Department of Neurology, Iwate Medical University, 19-1 Uchimaru, Morioka, Iwate 020-8505, Japan. chiso@apost.plala.or.jp

We determined the concentrations of free homocysteine (HC) and total HC in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or Parkinson's disease (PD) in order to elucidate whether HC is related to the pathogenesis of these neurodegenerative diseases. The concentration of free HC did not differ significantly from that of the normal controls, while the concentration of total HC was significantly higher in the AD and PD patients (+31% in AD,+31% in PD; p<0.05). These findings suggest that an increase of total HC concentration in the brain is commonly seen in patients with AD and PD, and this may be related to the pathogenesis of these two diseases.

Published 1 August 2005 in Life Sci, 77(15): 1836-43.
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