Neurochemical Features of Frontotemporal Dementia

This study examines neurochemical measures of cholinergic, serotonergic and glutamatergic innervation in frontal temporal and parietal cerebral cortex from 16 subjects with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) including 10 subjects with Pick pathology and 6 with dementia of frontal lobe type (DFT) together with 9 subjects with Alzheimer's disease, and 28 matched controls. In both forms of FTD there was not evidence of any cholinergic abnormality, unlike the situation in AD. Serotonin receptors were lost from frontal and temporal cortex in FTD and from temporal and parietal cortex in AD. In FTD there was no loss of kainate receptors but loss of AMPA receptors from both temporal and frontal lobes. Loss of AMPA receptors differentiated Pick-type FTD from DFT. These results are interpreted to indicate selective losses of subpopulations of cortical pyramidal neurones.