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Phospholipase A2 activity is decreased selectively in the hippocampus of aged apolipoprotein E deficient mice
C B Patrick1, P Krzywkowski, C Ramassamy
1Section on Brain Physiology and Metabolism, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Building, 10, Room 6C103, 10 Center Drive MSC 1582, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
Abstract:
Because apolipoprotein E (ApoE) deficient mice have cognitive deficits (Neurosci. Lett., 199 (1995) 1-4; Neuroscience, 92 (1999) 1273-1286; Brain Res., 752 (1997) 189-196) that may involve decreased phospholipase A(2) (PLA(2)) activity (Neuroscience, 92 (1999) 1273-1286), striatal, hippocampal, and parieto-temporal PLA(2) activity was measured in cytosol from 3 and 20-month-old ApoE deficient and control mice. Samples were homogenized and cytosol prepared by ultracentrifugation. PLA(2) activity in each cytosolic fraction was measured in triplicate using a continuous fluorometric assay (J. Neurosci. Methods (2000) in press). In 3-month-old animals, there was a trend for decreased hippocampal PLA(2) activity between groups. In 20-month-old animals, hippocampal PLA(2) activity was significantly (P=0.0304) decreased nearly 20% in ApoE deficient mice as compared to age-matched control mice. No differences were found in other brain regions, although activity in the striatal samples were nearly 65% less than in the other two regions.