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Estradiol Therapy After Menopause Mitigates Effects of Stress on Cortisol and Working Memory.

ABSTRACT: Postmenopausal estradiol therapy (ET) can reduce the stress response. However, it remains unclear whether such reductions can mitigate effects of stress on cognition.Investigate effects of ET on cortisol response to a physical stressor, cold pressor test (CPT), and whether ET attenuates stress effects on working memory.Women completed the CPT or control condition across two sessions and subsequently completed a sentence span task.General community: Participants were recruited from the Early vs Late Intervention Trial with Estradiol (ELITE).ELITE participants (mean age = 66, standard deviation age = 6.8) in this study did not suffer from any major chronic illness or use medications known to affect the stress response or cognition.Participants had received a median of randomized 4.7 years of estradiol (n = 21) or placebo (n = 21) treatment at time of participation in this study.Salivary cortisol and sentence span task performance.Women assigned to estradiol exhibited blunted cortisol responses to CPT compared with placebo (P = 0.017) and lesser negative effects of stress on working memory (P = 0.048).We present evidence suggesting ET may protect certain types of cognition in the presence of stress. Such estrogenic protection against stress hormone exposure may prove beneficial to both cognition and the neural circuitry that maintains and propagates cognitive faculties.

SUBMITTER: Herrera AY

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5718702 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Estradiol Therapy After Menopause Mitigates Effects of Stress on Cortisol and Working Memory.

Herrera Alexandra Ycaza AY Hodis Howard N HN Mack Wendy J WJ Mather Mara M

The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism 20171201 12

<h4>Context</h4>Postmenopausal estradiol therapy (ET) can reduce the stress response. However, it remains unclear whether such reductions can mitigate effects of stress on cognition.<h4>Objective</h4>Investigate effects of ET on cortisol response to a physical stressor, cold pressor test (CPT), and whether ET attenuates stress effects on working memory.<h4>Design</h4>Women completed the CPT or control condition across two sessions and subsequently completed a sentence span task.<h4>Setting</h4>G ...[more]

PMID: 29106594

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Project description:The present study examined how a gene related to functioning of the dopaminergic system, catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), and estradiol were related to brain functioning in healthy postmenopausal women. Participants were 118 healthy, cognitively normal postmenopausal women between the ages of 50-60 years. All women provided a blood sample for COMT and estradiol analyses and underwent a magnetic resonance imaging scan. Working memory performance and related brain activation were measured with BOLD functional magnetic resonance imaging during the N-back task. Results were examined across each COMT genotype and a median split was performed on the circulating estradiol levels to create high and low estradiol groups for each genotype. COMT genotype and estradiol level were hypothesized to be proxy measures for brain dopamine levels with the Met/Met and high estradiol group having the most dopamine and Val/Val and low estradiol group having the least dopamine. The functional magnetic resonance imaging results showed that the N-back task activated the expected bilateral frontal and bilateral parietal working memory network. However, no main effects of COMT genotype or estradiol group were found. There was COMT-estradiol interaction found in a small area of decreased activation in the right precentral gyrus (Brodmann Area 6) that was related to the increasing hypothesized dopamine level. Specifically, women with a Met/Met genotype in the high estradiol group had the least activation in this frontal lobe working memory region. Women with a Val/Val genotype in the low estradiol group had greater activation in this region relative to the other groups. Performance on the N-back task did not show any group differences. These data indicate that after menopause COMT genotype and potentially the menopause-related changes to the dopaminergic system are not related to cognition. Future studies should examine how the relationship between COMT, estradiol, and cognition around the menopause transition as there appear to be differences in this relationship for premenopausal and postmenopausal women.

Dataset Information

Estradiol Therapy After Menopause Mitigates Effects of Stress on Cortisol and Working Memory.

Publications

Estradiol Therapy After Menopause Mitigates Effects of Stress on Cortisol and Working Memory.

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