Although dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT) is the most common form of dementia, the
severity of dementia is only weakly correlated with DAT pathology. In contrast, postmortem
measurements of cholinergic function and membrane ethanolamine plasmalogen (PlsEtn)
content in the cortex and hippocampus correlate with the severity of dementia in DAT.
Currently, the largest risk factor for DAT is age. Because the synthesis of PlsEtn occurs via a
single nonredundant peroxisomal pathway that has been shown to decrease with age and …