Endocrine Abstracts

Alzheimer’s disease is closely associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM); being considered as type 3 DM due to common molecular peculiarities of type 2 DM and insulin resistance associated with the memory deficit and decline in the cognitive functions in elderly persons. We generated a model of sporadic neurodegenerative condition (NDC) or type 3 DM. The work was initiated to study profile of phospholipids in the hippocampal membranes of rats with the induced sporadic NDC.

Materials and methods: Within long period of time, the animals have been kept on the high calorie diet subsequently administered with neurotoxin. The phospholipids were fractionated by thin-layer chromatography. All experiments with animals were conducted in compliance with the regulations of the Committee on bioethics at the Institute of Biophysics and Biochemistry.

Results and discussion: Monitoring of the type 3DM was conducted by regular testing of behavior functions of animals, as well as their blood biochemical examination. The sporadic model of NDC with symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease or type 3 DM induced, the lysoforms of phospholipids (14.1 ± 0.6 vs 10.3 ± 0.5 μg of phosphorus/g of tissue in the controls), phosphatidic acid (18.2 ± 1.2 vs 14.9 ± 0.8 μg of phosphorus/g of tissue) and cholesterol (22.6 ± 0.3 vs 19.0 ± 0.3 μg of phosphorus/g of tissue, P<0.05) were found increased next to insignificant reduction in macro-components, to name phosphatidylcholine (542.0 ± 21.6 vs 559.8 ± 25.6 μg of phosphorus/g of tissue), sphingomyelin (108.1 ± 3.221 vs125.2 ± 3.8 μg of phosphorus/g of tissue), phosphatidylethanolamine (488.3 ± 19.1 vs 491.4 ± 21.4 μg of phosphorus/g of tissue), in micro-components, such as phosphatidylserine (147.4 ± 6.1 vs 187.5 ± 9.5 μg of phosphorus/g of tissue), phosphatidylinositol (83.5 ± 3.5 vs 88.7 ± 4.8 μg of phosphorus/g of tissue), as well as in total phospholipids (1464.7 ± 32.3 vs 1537.4 ± 31.3 μg of phosphorus/g of tissue). As the components of intermediate part of bio-membranes, phospholipids make impact on the condition and functionality of a cell, as a whole. Phospholipids maintain functioning of the essential cell mechanisms, to name ion exchange, inner reparation, bio-oxidation, influencing fixation of enzymes in mitochondria and oxidative phosphorylation. Increase in lysoforms of phospholipids and phosphatidic acid under induction of the NDC model indicates activation of phospholipases, possibly producing effects on the microenvironment of acetyl choline receptors of the brain cells and neuroplasticity of the nerve cells.