[Aging and atherosclerosis of human aorta. Comparative evolution of seven glycosyl-transferases and of lactate-dehydrogenase (author's transl)].

Seven glycosyl-transferases and the lactico-dehydrogenase from human aortas were assayed. These aortas were divided in five classes according to the age and in five steps according to the atherogenesis. These enzymic activities do not show any parallelism in their evolution; their variation with age and with atherogenesis is quite different. For example, the N-acetylgalactosaminyl-transferase activity increases with atherogenesis whereas it diminishes with age; on the other hand the lactate-dehydrogenase activity increases with age and decreases with atherogenesis; the sialyl-transferase activity is nearly constant during adulthood while it hardly declines with atherogenesis. These assays suggest: 1) an effect of energy metabolism on the glycosyl-transferase activities; 2) a qualitative and quantitative variation of the glycosaminoglycans biosynthesis; 3) a structural modification of the glucidic part of the glycoproteins which can induce the formation of antigenic sites.