Impact of sex differences on molecular determinants of AD risk and responsiveness to treatment

There is increasing evidence that there are clear differences between men and women in cognitive impairment particularly Alzheimer’s Disease. Mid-life levels of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and particularly high cholesterol are risk factors for cognitive impairment and dementia in old age, and they may even cause cognitive decline in young adults. We will feed a high-cholesterol diet to male and female animals as an unconventional, but promising model of late-onset Alzheimer’s Disease, and determine how estrogen and estrogen receptors affect learning and memory and the underlying molecular pathways and brain pathology.