Serum noncholesterol sterols in Alzheimer's disease: the Helsinki Businessmen Study

Cerebral cholesterol metabolism is perturbed in late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD), but whether also the extracerebral cholesterol metabolism is perturbed is not known. Thus, we studied whole-body cholesterol synthesis and absorption with serum noncholesterol sterols in men without AD (n = 114) or with (n = 18) pure AD (no concomitant atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease) in a long-term cohort (the Helsinki Businessmen Study) of home-dwelling older men without lipid-lowering drugs and on their habitual home diet. Serum lipids did not differ between AD and controls, but age was higher (78 +/- 1 vs 74 +/- 0.3 years, mean f standard error, P < 0.001), age-adjusted plasma glucose concentration was lower (4.8 +/- 0.3 vs 5.7 +/- 0.1 mmol/L, P= 0.011), and APOE epsilon 4 allele and frailty were more frequent in AD than in controls. Of the age and frailty-adjusted serum noncholesterol sterols desmosterol and lathosterol ratios to cholesterol reflecting cholesterol synthesis were lower in AD than in controls (eg, lathosterol 114 +/- 12 vs 137 +/- 5 10(2) mu mol/mmol cholesterol, P= 0.004). Cholestanol ratio to cholesterol was higher in AD than in controls suggesting increased cholesterol absorption. lathosterol/sitosteroll ratio reflecting cholesterol metabolism was lower in AD than in controls (0.95 +/- 0.28 vs 1.52 +/- 0.11 10(2) mu mol/mmol cholesterol, P = 0.027). In AD, plasma glucose correlated negatively with cholesterol synthesis, whereas in controls the correlation was positive. In conclusion, extracerebral cholesterol metabolism was altered in AD. This finding along with the low plasma glucose concentration and its paradoxical interaction with cholesterol synthesis opens new perspectives in the regulation of cholesterol metabolism and glucose homeostasis in AD.