Gender- and age-dependent changes in nucleoside levels in the human brain

What is it about?

To better understand the functions of nucleosides in the central nervous system, we investigated gender- and age-dependent changes in the levels of nucleosides and their metabolites. The concentrations of uridine, inosine, guanosine and adenosine as well as uracil, hypoxanthine and xanthine were measured in the frontal cortex and white matter of post-mortem brain tissue samples of middle-aged and old men as well as women. The average in vivo concentrations calculated from the 40 samples investigated (regardless of anatomical locations, gender or age; mean±S.E.M.) were as follows (pmol/mg wet tissue weight): 9.7±0.8 adenosine, 85.8±3.9 inosine, 14.3±0.9 guanosine, 37.3±1.8 uridine, 8.9±0.6 uracil, 63.3±2.1 hypoxanthine and 38.7±1.5 xanthine.

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Why is it important?

Nucleosides are neuromodulators that participate in various neuronal functions in the brain. In previous studies, we described regional differences in the concentrations of nucleosides and their derivatives in the human brain. We present here the first complex metabolomic analysis of the human brain related to age and gender dependencies of nucleoside levels. We demonstrated that the concentration of metabolically coupled nucleosides is modulated by age and gender in the human brain. Our data are in agreement with formerly disclosed changes in metabolic enzymes in aging and gender difference studies.

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