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Glucose and related brain metabolism in normal aging

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Abstract

Normal brain function is strongly correlated with undisturbed cerebral circulation and the supply of the subrates oxygen and glucose. The mature, healthy, nonstarved mammalian brain uses glucose only to obtain biologically available energy as ATP. The glycolytic and oxidative cerebral glucose metabolism is controlled by means of various mechanisms. Glucose breakdown contributes to the formation of the neurotransmitters acetylcholine, glutamate, aspartate and GABA. ATP yields the basis for maintenance of cellular homeostasis via ion homeostasis, integrity of cellular components and intracellular transportation processes, and is necessary for the formation of several neurotransmitters and neurohormones. It is demonstrated that normal cerebral aging may be associated with an incipient perturbation of cerebral circulation and metabolism causing an imbalance of cell homeostasis beyond the age of 70 years pointing to a threshold phenomenon. If the disturbance in cell homeostasis cannot be counterbalanced, “normal” cerebral aging may be expected to develop into dementia in old age beyond a critical age-related threshold.

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  1. Department of Pathochemistry and General Neurochemistry, University of Heidelberg, D-6900, Heidelberg, Germany

    Siegfried Hoyer

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Hoyer, S. Glucose and related brain metabolism in normal aging. AGE 11, 150–156 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02432295

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