Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA.
University of Kansas Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Fairway, KS, USA.
J Alzheimers Dis. 2022;90(2):535-542. doi: 10.3233/JAD-220359.
Sex as a biological variable appears to contribute to the multifactorial etiology of Alzheimer's disease. We tested sex-based interactions between cerebrovascular function and APOE4 genotype on resistance and resilience to brain pathology and cognitive executive dysfunction in cognitively-normal older adults. Female APOE4 carriers had higher amyloid-β deposition yet achieved similar cognitive performance to males and female noncarriers. Further, female APOE4 carriers with robust cerebrovascular responses to exercise possessed lower amyloid-β. These results suggest a unique cognitive resilience and identify cerebrovascular function as a key mechanism for resistance to age-related brain pathology in females with high genetic vulnerability to Alzheimer's disease.
性别作为一个生物学变量似乎对阿尔茨海默病的多因素病因学有贡献。我们测试了脑血管功能和 APOE4 基因型之间的性别交互作用,以了解认知正常的老年人对脑病理和认知执行功能障碍的抵抗和适应能力。携带 APOE4 的女性表现出更高的淀粉样蛋白-β 沉积,但认知表现与男性和不携带 APOE4 的女性相似。此外,具有较强脑血管对运动反应的 APOE4 女性携带者的淀粉样蛋白-β水平较低。这些结果表明存在独特的认知适应能力,并确定脑血管功能是具有高阿尔茨海默病遗传易感性的女性抵抗与年龄相关脑病理的关键机制。