Aging and brain cholinergic muscarinic receptor subtypes: an autoradiographic study in the rat

Cholinergic M1 and M2 muscarinic receptors in aged and young rat brains were studied by quantitative autoradiography of tritiated QNB in the presence of pirenzepine or carbachol. A selective pattern of decreased binding density was observed in the aged rat. A large number of regions showed no effect of aging; these include subdivisions of the hippocampal formation and most thalamic and hypothalamic nuclei. M1 and M2 receptors showed small but significant decreases in cortical regions and in the striatum. The largest effects were seen in M2 receptors of the ventral forebrain cholinergic nuclei where binding was reduced by up to 40%. No similar reductions were seen in the M1 receptor population in these regions. The results suggest that both muscarinic receptor subtypes show an anatomically selective pattern of decrease with age, with the M2 receptor subtype in the basal forebrain nuclei being specially vulnerable to the effects of aging.