title: Serum ceramides increase the risk of Alzheimer disease: the Women's Health and Aging Study II.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Previous studies have shown that high serum ceramides are associated with memory impairment and hippocampal volume loss, but have not examined dementia as an outcome. The aim of this study was to examine whether serum ceramides and sphingomyelins (SM) were associated with an increased risk of all-cause dementia and Alzheimer disease (AD).
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants included 99 women without dementia aged 70-79, with baseline serum SM and ceramides, enrolled in a longitudinal population-based study and followed for up to 6 visits over 9 years. Baseline lipids, in tertiles, were examined in relation to all-cause dementia and AD using discrete time Cox proportional survival analysis. Lipids were analyzed using electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-seven (27.3%) of the 99 women developed incident dementia. Of these, 18 (66.7%) were diagnosed with probable AD. Higher baseline serum ceramides, but not SM, were associated with an increased risk of AD; these relationships were stronger than with all-cause dementia. Compared to the lowest tertile, the middle and highest tertiles of ceramide d18:1-C16:0 were associated with a 10-fold (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.2-85.1) and 7.6-fold increased risk of AD (95% CI 0.9-62.1), respectively. The highest tertiles of ceramide d18:1-C24:0 (hazard ratio [HR] = 5.1, 95% CI 1.1-23.6) and lactosylceramide (HR = 9.8, 95% CI 1.2-80.1) were also associated with risk of AD. Total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides were not associated with dementia or AD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results from this preliminary study suggest that particular species of serum ceramides are associated with incident AD and warrant continued examination in larger studies.
authors: Division of Epidemiology, College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA. mielke.michelle@mayo.edu
authors: Michelle M
authors: MM
authors: Mielke
authors: Veera Vankata Ratnam
authors: VV
authors: Bandaru
authors: Norman J
authors: NJ
authors: Haughey
authors: Jin
authors: J
authors: Xia
authors: Linda P
authors: LP
authors: Fried
authors: Sevil
authors: S
authors: Yasar
authors: Marilyn
authors: M
authors: Albert
authors: Vijay
authors: V
authors: Varma
authors: Greg
authors: G
authors: Harris
authors: Eric B
authors: EB
authors: Schneider
authors: Peter V
authors: PV
authors: Rabins
authors: Karen
authors: K
authors: Bandeen-Roche
authors: Constantine G
authors: CG
authors: Lyketsos
authors: Michelle C
authors: MC
authors: Carlson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis; D002518:Ceramides / Q000097:blood*; D003704:Dementia / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D012306:Risk; D012307:Risk Factors; D016387:Women's Health
chemical_list: D002518:Ceramides