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- Alzheimer’s disease is the most common neurodegenerative disease.
- In France, it concerns 1.2 million people.
- This condition affects 23% of the population after 80 years.
“Alzheimer’s disease has a higher rate in older women, with peak cognitive decline after visceral obesity and bone loss during menopause.” This was pointed out by a team of Chinese and American scientists. The latter wondered why this neurodegenerative condition worried more women. To find out for sure, they conducted a study, including The results were recently published in the journal nature. For the purposes of the work, the authors conducted an experiment on mice that had undergone oophorectomy.
In order to conduct their study, they decided to focus on female hormones that changed drastically during menopause. They note what activates the C/EBPβ/AEP signaling pathway, which is the central factor in neurodegenerative diseases. Researchers have identified follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) as the primary factor in dementia.
The role of follicle-stimulating hormone in the onset of Alzheimer’s disease
“Here we show that FSH acts directly on hippocampal and cortical neurons to accelerate beta and tau amyloid deposition and impair cognition in mice with signs of Alzheimer’s disease,” Can we read in the searches.
According to the results, inhibiting the action of FSH reduces body fat, improves thermogenesis, increases bone mass and reduces cholesterol in mice. According to the scientists, blocking the action of FSH in these mice reverses the Alzheimer’s disease phenotype by inhibiting the C/EBPβ/AEP neural pathway.
“These data not only suggest a causal role for increased FSH levels in the onset of Alzheimer’s disease during menopause, but also reveal the possibility of treating Alzheimer’s disease, obesity and osteoporosis by blocking FSH,” The researchers concluded.
