IngentaConnect Effects of long-term, low-dose sex hormone replacement therapy on...

Authors: YUE, Yun¹; HU, Ling²; TIAN, Qin-jie²; JIANG, Jing-mei¹; DONG, Yi-long¹; JIN, Zheng-yu²; CHENG, Yu-hang³; HONG, Xia²; GE, Qin-sheng²; ZUO, Ping-ping

Source: Acta Pharmacologica Sinica, Volume 28, Number 8, August 2007 , pp. 1129-1135(7)

Publisher: Blackwell Publishing

Abstract:

Aim: To study the effects of long-term, low-dose sex hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on the volume and biochemical changes of the hippocampus in postmenopausal women carrying apolipoprotein E (apoE) gene ɛ3 or ɛ4. Methods: Eighty-three postmenopausal women who had used a low dose of HRT for over 4 years were selected as the HRT group, and 99 postmenopausal women with matched age and education were enrolled as the control group. ApoE alleles were analyzed by PCR. Magnetic resonance imaging was performed to determine the volume of the brain hippocampus. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to detect the biochemical changes in the anterior cingulate cortex and hippocampus in apoE ɛ4 and ɛ3 carriers. Six common cognitive tests were used to make an overall evaluation of cognitive function. Results: Analysis with the apoE ɛ4 carriers showed that the volume of the hippocampus of the control group were significantly lower than those of the HRT group. The biochemical analysis showed that there was an increase of N-acetylaspartate (NAA)/total creatine (tCr) and a decrease of myoinositol (mI)/tCr in the hippocampus of apoE ɛ4 carriers in the HRT group, compared with the control group. For the apoE ɛ3 carriers, the least squares means (LSMEAN) of the HRT group was higher than that of the control group. Conclusion: This study showed that long-term, low dose HRT might be beneficial for reducing the risk of AD development invulnerable postmenopausal women. Meanwhile, HRT could increase the LSMEAN of apoE ɛ3 carriers.

Keywords: hormone replacement therapy; apoE; Alzheimer's disease; magnetic resonance imaging

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-7254.2007.00618.x

Affiliations: 1: School of Basic Medicine, Peking Union Medical College and Institute of Basic Medical Science, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100005, China 2: Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing 100730, China 3: Beijing Anding Hospital, Beijing 100088, China

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Effects of long-term, low-dose sex hormone replacement therapy on hippocampus and cognition of postmenopausal women of different apoE genotypes