OESTROGEN protects women against Alzheimer鈥檚 disease by inhibiting the
build-up of brain-clogging plaques, say scientists in the US.
American women in higher social classes, who are more likely to have had
hormone replacement therapy, are less likely to get Alzheimer鈥檚.
To try to explain this, a team led by Sam Gandy at New York University tested
the effect of oestrogen on the production of the rogue peptide that leads to
plaque formation in Alzheimer鈥檚.
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The team says in this month鈥檚 Nature Medicine (vol 4, p 447) that
their experiments showed oestrogen significantly cuts the production of the
peptide in cultures of embryonic neurons from mice, rats and humans.
