Estrogen and the Aging Primate Brain

这一多机构合作努力的进展主要集中在行为特征受试者大脑中与雌激素状态相关的定量形态学分析。在这类研究中，Hara及其同事测试了支配前额皮质46区神经元树突的末梢的突触形态是否与卵巢激素状态和衰老的认知结果有关。通过电子显微镜检查的超微结构的定量集中在非，单，多突触终扣。结果的总体模式是，尽管单独的衰老影响相对较小，但更年期与突触形态可靠地联系在一起，这些影响与背外侧前额叶皮层支持的认知能力的个体差异相结合。我们预计项目的努力将继续阐明一些重要的妇女健康问题，卵巢激素对正常认知老化的调节影响。

Progress on this multi-institutional collaborative effort has focused primarily on quantitative morphometric analysis in the brains of behaviorally characterized subjects in relation to estrogen status. In a study of this sort, Hara and colleagues tested whether the synaptic morphology of terminals innervating the dendrites of neurons in Area 46 of the prefrontal cortex are altered in relation to ovarian hormone status and the cognitive outcome of aging. Quantification of ultrastructure examined by electron microscopy focused on non-, single-, and multi-synaptic boutons. The overall pattern of results was that, whereas aging alone had relatively little effect, menopause was reliably linked to synaptic morphology and these effects were coupled with individual differences in cognitive capacities supported by the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. We anticipate project efforts will continue to illuminate a number of significant womens health issues concerning the modulatory influence of ovarian hormones on normal cognitive aging.