Maintenance of cortical somatostatin and monoamine levels in the rat does not require intact cholinergic innervation.

Levels of somatostatin, noradrenaline, dopamine, 5-hydroxytryptamine and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid were unchanged in rat neocortex 3 or 6 months after ibotenic acid lesion of the ipsilateral nucleus basalis that reduced cortical choline acetyltransferase levels by over 60%. These results render unlikely the possibility that non-cholinergic neurotransmitter deficits in Alzheimer's disease cortex are the consequence of cholinergic degeneration.