Project activities include a recently published study in which we evaluated, in aged surgically menopausal rhesus monkeys, the cognitive effects of four hormone therapy (HT) regimens designed to mimic treatments used clinically in women (Baxter et al., 2013). Whereas our earlier work had demonstrated that monthly acute estrogen injection benefits working memory capacities mediated by the prefrontal cortex in aged ovariectormized monkeys, HT in women has often failed to improve cognitive function in clinical studies. The possibility that this discrepancy reflects differences in the formulation and timing of HT regimens, however, has not been tested systematically. Notably, none of the four hormone treatments examined in our experiments produced any beneficial effects on cognition, despite documented efficacy measured by serum hormone levels. Consistent with these findings, and in contrast to our previous results in brains from animals provided cyclic estrogen administration, none of the HT regimens tested had any detectable effect on dendritic spine density in the monkey prefrontal cortex (Ohm et al., 2013). Continuing work on this project is testing whether there is a window of opportunity for protecting cognitive function after ovarian hormone decline, together with a variety of related questions concerning the brain morphometric influence of surgical menopause and hormone therapy.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Investigator-Initiated Intramural Research Projects (ZIA)
Project #
1ZIAAG000351-05
Application #
8736532
Study Section
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
Budget End
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$133,560
Indirect Cost
Name
National Institute on Aging
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
State
Country
Zip Code
Crimins, Johanna L; Wang, Athena Ching-Jung; Yuk, Frank et al. (2017) Diverse Synaptic Distributions of G Protein-coupled Estrogen Receptor 1 in Monkey Prefrontal Cortex with Aging and Menopause. Cereb Cortex 27:2022-2033
Hara, Yuko; Yuk, Frank; Puri, Rishi et al. (2016) Estrogen Restores Multisynaptic Boutons in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex while Promoting Working Memory in Aged Rhesus Monkeys. J Neurosci 36:901-10
Snyder, Heather M; Asthana, Sanjay; Bain, Lisa et al. (2016) Sex biology contributions to vulnerability to Alzheimer's disease: A think tank convened by the Women's Alzheimer's Research Initiative. Alzheimers Dement 12:1186-1196
Naugle, Michelle M; Nguyen, Long T; Merceron, Tyler K et al. (2014) G-protein coupled estrogen receptor, estrogen receptor ?, and progesterone receptor immunohistochemistry in the hypothalamus of aging female rhesus macaques given long-term estradiol treatment. J Exp Zool A Ecol Genet Physiol 321:399-414
Young, M E; Ohm, D T; Dumitriu, D et al. (2014) Differential effects of aging on dendritic spines in visual cortex and prefrontal cortex of the rhesus monkey. Neuroscience 274:33-43
Hara, Yuko; Yuk, Frank; Puri, Rishi et al. (2014) Presynaptic mitochondrial morphology in monkey prefrontal cortex correlates with working memory and is improved with estrogen treatment. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111:486-91
Baxter, Mark G; Roberts, Mary T; Gee, Nancy A et al. (2013) Multiple clinically relevant hormone therapy regimens fail to improve cognitive function in aged ovariectomized rhesus monkeys. Neurobiol Aging 34:1882-90
Ohm, Daniel T; Bloss, Erik B; Janssen, William G et al. (2012) Clinically relevant hormone treatments fail to induce spinogenesis in prefrontal cortex of aged female rhesus monkeys. J Neurosci 32:11700-5
Hara, Yuko; Rapp, Peter R; Morrison, John H (2012) Neuronal and morphological bases of cognitive decline in aged rhesus monkeys. Age (Dordr) 34:1051-73
Dumitriu, Dani; Rapp, Peter R; McEwen, Bruce S et al. (2010) Estrogen and the aging brain: an elixir for the weary cortical network. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1204:104-12

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