Studies of transketolase abnormality in Alzheimer\u27s disease / Kwan-Fu Rex Sheu, PhD; Donald D. Clarke, PhD; Young-Tai Kim, PhD; John P. Blass, MD, PhD; Bradford J. Harding; Joseph DeCicco

The partially purified transketolase from each of eight well-nourished patients with Alzheimer\u27s disease contained significantly less heat-stable component with a significantly longer half-life of heat inactivation than that from eight controls. Immunochemical studies utilizing antibodies to the purified human liver transketolase did not distinguish between red blood cell transketolases of patients with Alzheimer\u27s disease and those of controls. However, three brains from patients with Alzheimer\u27s disease that were deficient in transketolase activity lacked a 69-kilodalton form on immunoblots. Subtle structural abnormalities of transketolase appear to occur in a high proportion of patients with Alzheimer\u27s diseas

The subcellular localization of glutamate dehydrogenase (gdh): is gdh a marker for mitochondria in brain? / James C. K. Lai, Kwan-Fu Rex Sheu, Young Tai Kim, Donald D. Clarke, and John P. Blass Department of Neurology, Cornell University Medical College and Altschul Laboratory for Dementia Research Burke Rehabilitation Center White Plains, NY 10605 and Department of Medicine Cornell University Medical College New York, NY 10021

Glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH, EC 1.4.1.2) has long been used as a marker for mitochondria in brain and other tissues, despite reports indicating that GDH is also present in nuclei of liver and dorsal root ganglia. To examine whether GDH can be used as a marker to differentiate between mitochondria and nuclei in the brain, we have measured GDH by enzymatic activity and on immunoblots in rat brain mitochondria and nuclei which were highly enriched by density-gradient centrifugation methods. The activity of GDH was enriched in the nuclear fraction as well as in the mitochondrial fraction, while the activities of other mitochondrial enzymes (fumarase, NAD-isocitrate dehydrogenase and pyruvate dehydrogenase complex) were enriched only in the mitochondrial fraction. lmmunoblots using polyclonal antibodies against bovine liver GDH confmned the presence of GDH in the rat brain nuclear and mitochondrial fractions. The GDH in these two subcellular fractions had a very similar molecular weight of 56,000 daltons. The mitochondrial and nuclear GDH differed, however, in their susceptibility to solubilization by detergents and salts. The mitochondrial GDH could be solubilized by extraction with low concentrations of detergents (0.1% Triton X-100 and 0.1% Lubrol PX), while the nuclear GDH could be solubilized only by elevated concentrations of detergents (0.3% each) plus KCl (\u3e 150 mM). Our results indicate that GDH is present in both nuclei and mitochondria in rat brain. The notion that GDH may serve as a marker for mitochondria needs to be re-evaluate