Description

Please join us for our webinar with Kristin Zuloaga, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at Albany Medical College. Dr. Zuloaga will present her talk which was scheduled for Vascular Biology 2024 entitled: "Poor metabolic health as a risk factor for dementia: Influence of sex and sex hormones.”

Abstract: Vascular changes are some of the earliest and strongest predictors of dementia. Approximately 2/3 of those with dementia are women, thus examining both sex differences and sex-specific risk factors are key. In mid-life, endocrine aging (menopause in women) begins to impact physiology and brain health. Mid-life is also a key time period in the pathogenesis of dementia, as neuropathology begins to accumulate in the brain decades before a dementia diagnosis. Major mid-life risk factors for dementia include metabolic diseases, such as obesity, prediabetes, and diabetes that are known to impact vascular health. How menopause impacts brain health in the context of other co-morbidities is not well understood. Using mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease, vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID), and multi-etiology dementia (MED; vascular + AD pathology), we examined both sex differences and the effects of menopause with or without co-morbid metabolic disease (modeled by chronic high fat diet). We found that females are more susceptible to metabolic risk factors for dementia compared to males across several models of dementia (VCID, AD, and MED). Further, we found that menopause caused metabolic impairment and exacerbated cognitive deficits and underlying pathology in a mouse model of VCID. Finally, we found that a brain-specific estrogen prodrug reversed cognitive impairment in post-menopausal females. This work highlights the important of sex and sex-specific endocrine aging in assessing vascular and metabolic risk factors for dementia.