A preliminary study of free amino acids in the postmortem temporal cortex from Alzheimer-type dementia patients

Concentrations of free amino acids were measured in the temporal cortex of postmortem brains from four histologically verified cases with Alzheimer-type dementia (ATD) and eight histologically normal controls. The concentrations of taurine, glutamate, and gamma-aminobutyric acid, which are all neurotransmitter candidates, were significantly lower in the ATD brains than in the controls. These findings suggest that the involvement of amino acid neurons in ATD cannot be ruled out.