Professor Ralph Martins

1
Age Related Hormonal Changes in Alzheimers
Disease
Professor Ralph Martins School of Biomedical and
Sports Science, Edith Cowan University, Sir James
McCusker Alzheimers Disease Research
Unit, Hollywood Private Hospital.
2
Factors Promoting Ab Accumulation
Interact
Changes in Hormone Levels Oestrogen,
Testosterone, Luteinizing Hormone, Insulin
Responsible for gt90 of cases
3
Insulin Degrading Enzyme (IDE) defect involved in
pathology of AD
4
Hypothalamic Pituitary-Ovary (HPO) axis
Hypothalamus
GnRH
Pituitary
Menopause 3-4 fold increase in serum LH levels
(Chakravarti et al., 1976) AD 2 fold increase
in serum LH and FSH levels (compared to aged
matched controls (Bowen et al., 2000 Short et
al., 2001)
LH FSH
Oestrogen Progesterone
Ovaries
5
Gonadotropins and Cognition in 450 Elderly Women
without Dementia Results
Diagrammatic presentation of the direction of
influence and the interactive nature of LH and
age on CAMCOG for the non-APOE e4 sub-sample
groups
6
Leuprolide, a gonadotropin lowering drug reduces
brain Ab levels in mice
Untreated
Treated
, p 0.05 , p 0.0001 (n6), for differences
between vehicle and treated animals at the same
time point.