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Transition metal abnormalities in progressive dementias

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Abstract

Abnormal distributions of transition metals inside the brain are potential diagnostic markers for several central nervous system diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), bipolar disorders and depression. To further explore this possibility, the total concentrations of iron, zinc, copper, manganese, aluminum, chromium and cadmium were measured in post-mortem hippocampus and amygdala tissues taken from AD, DLB and Control patients. A statistically significant near fifty percent reduction in the total copper levels of AD patients was observed in both the hippocampus and amygdala. The statistical power of the hippocampus and amygdala copper analysis was found to be 86 and 74% respectively. No statistically significant deviations in the total metal concentrations were found for zinc, manganese, chromium or aluminum. Iron was found to be increased by 38% in AD amygdala tissues, but was unchanged in AD hippocampus tissues. Accounting for differences in tissue water content, as a function of both tissue type and disease state, revealed more consistencies with previous literature. To aid in the design of future experiments, the effect sizes for all tissue types and metals studied are also presented.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to sincerely thank both the patients and their families for their generous donations, without which this research would not be possible. The authors would like to acknowledge the researchers at Elemental Analysis Inc. (Kentucky, USA) for their invaluable assistance with the inductively coupled mass spectrometry experiments. The authors would also like to acknowledge financial support from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (Tokyo, Japan).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Choju Medical Institute, Fukushimura Hospital, Toyohashi, Japan

    Hiroyasu Akatsu, Akira Hori, Takayuki Yamamoto & Yoshio Hashizume

  2. Department of Neuropathology, Institute for Medical Science of Aging, Aichi Medical University, Nagakute, Japan

    Mari Yoshida & Maya Mimuro

  3. Research Promotion Organization for Intractable Neurological Disease, Molecular Neuroscience Research Center, Shiga Medical University, Otsu, Japan

    Ikuo Tooyama

  4. State College, PA, USA

    Eric M. Yezdimer

  5. Industrial Summit Technology, Parlin, NJ, USA

    Eric M. Yezdimer

Authors
  1. Hiroyasu Akatsu
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  2. Akira Hori
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  3. Takayuki Yamamoto
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  4. Mari Yoshida
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  5. Maya Mimuro
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  6. Yoshio Hashizume
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  7. Ikuo Tooyama
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  8. Eric M. Yezdimer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eric M. Yezdimer.

Additional information

E. M. Yezdimer—formerly at Industrial Summit Technology

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Akatsu, H., Hori, A., Yamamoto, T. et al. Transition metal abnormalities in progressive dementias. Biometals 25, 337–350 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10534-011-9504-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10534-011-9504-8

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