Regional distribution of transketolase in post-mortem human brain.

Selective vulnerability of certain brain regions which is characteristic of Wernicke - Korsakoff syndrome (WKS), is still unexplained. The objective o f this study was to measure the activity of transketolase (TK), in 9 region s of five normal human brains at post-mortem to determine if there is a rel ationship between regional distribution of TK and regions susceptible to da mage in WKS. The brain regions studied included cerebellum, pens, thalamus, corpus callosum, occipital lobe, parietal lobe, frontal lobe, caudate nucl eus and mamillary body. Regardless of whether the results were expressed in terms of tissue wet weight or protein content, there was a significant reg ional distribution of TK activity within the brain regions (F Prob < 0.001, ANOVA). Further analysis using multiple comparisons of pairs of areas indi cated that TK activity was significantly higher in the mamillary body compa red to all other regions when expressed in terms of wet weight (P < 0.05). There is no obvious correlation apart from the finding that the highest TK activity was encountered in the mamillary body, a structure invariably affl icted in WKS.