RESPIRATORY-CHAIN ENZYME-ACTIVITIES IN ISOLATED-MITOCHONDRIA OF LYMPHOCYTES FROM PATIENTS WITH ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE

We studied respiratory chain enzyme activities in lymphocyte mitochond ria from 33 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and from 30 age- an d sex-matched healthy controls. The respiratory chain enzyme activitie s did not differ significantly between patients and controls. No patie nt showed any value for respiratory chain enzyme levels below normal r ange. Values for activities of complexes in the AD group did not corre late with age at onset or duration of the disease. Our finding of norm al mitochondrial function in lymphocyte mitochondria suggests that thi s tissue cannot be used to demonstrate the involvement of oxidative ph osphorylation in AD and, thus, to develop a diagnostic test for AD.