Laminar organization of cholinergic circuits in human frontal cortex in Alzheimer's disease and aging.

Cholinergic enzyme activity (choline acetyltransferase, CAT; acetylcholinesterase, AChE) and muscarinic cholinergic receptor density were measured in frontal cortex (Brodmann's area 9) of normal patients over the life span and in brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). CAT, but not AChE activity, declined with normal aging. Significant loss of CAT and AChE activity occurred in the AD brains, but later onset AD was associated with less severe loss of frontal cortex CAT activity. The majority of normal CAT activity resided in lamina I, II, and upper lamina III; CAT loss in AD resulted in large losses from all depths, most notably the upper cortical layers. AChE did not precisely correspond to the localization of CAT; loss of AChE in AD was consistent across all six laminae. No differences were seen in muscarinic cholinergic receptor binding between AD and age-matched controls; the distribution of binding was equal in all layers of normal frontal cortex, and no laminar differences were detected in distribution of cholinergic receptors between normal and AD samples.