title: Number of children is associated with neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease in women.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the association between number of born children and neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
  
  
  METHODS
  The brains of 86 subjects with data on the number of biological children born, were studied postmortem. Primary analyses included 73 subjects (average age at death=80; 42 women) devoid of cerebrovascular disease associated lesions (i.e., infarcts) or of non-AD related neuropathology. Women were significantly older at death than men (85.6 vs. 73.4; p<.0005) but did not differ significantly from men in number of children or dementia severity. Secondary analyses included 13 additional subjects who had concomitant cerebrovascular disease. Density of neuritic plaques (NPs) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) in the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, amygdala and multiple regions of the cerebral cortex, as well as composites of these indices reflecting overall neuropathology, were analyzed. For men and women separately, partial correlations, controlling for age at death and dementia severity, were used to assess the associations of number of children with these neuropathological variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among women, all the partial correlations were positive, with statistical significance for overall neuropathology (r=.37; p=.02), overall NPs (r=.36; p=.02), and for NPs in the amygdala (r=.47; p=.002). Among men, none of the partial correlations were statistically significant. Results of the secondary analyses were similar.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Since the associations between number of children and neuropathology of AD were found for women only, they might reflect sex-specific mechanisms (such as variations in estrogen or luteinizing hormone levels) rather than social, economic, biological or other mechanisms common to both men and women.
authors: The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, New York, NY 10029, USA. michal.beeri@mssm.edu
authors: Michal Schnaider
authors: MS
authors: Beeri
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Rapp
authors: James
authors: J
authors: Schmeidler
authors: Abraham
authors: A
authors: Reichenberg
authors: Dushyant P
authors: DP
authors: Purohit
authors: Daniel P
authors: DP
authors: Perl
authors: Hillel T
authors: HT
authors: Grossman
authors: Isak
authors: I
authors: Prohovnik
authors: Vahram
authors: V
authors: Haroutunian
authors: Jeremy M
authors: JM
authors: Silverman
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D000679:Amygdala / Q000473:pathology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000150:complications; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016874:Neurofibrillary Tangles; D010298:Parity; D058225:Plaque, Amyloid; D011247:Pregnancy; D012727:Sex Characteristics