Sex hormones may modulate plasma endothelin levels, with male hormones raising levels and female hormones lowering them. This finding may be important in explaining sex-associated differences in susceptibility to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

Article abstract-Objective: To investigate to what extent subjective memory complaints and APOE-⑀4 allele carriage predict future cognitive decline in cognitively intact elderly persons, by evaluating both their separate and combined effects. Methods: We selected 1,168 subjects from the population-based Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam who were 62 to 85 years of age and had no obvious cognitive impairment at baseline (Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE] score, Ն27). Memory complaints and APOE phenotypes were assessed at baseline. MMSE, the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (memory: immediate recall and delayed recall), and the Alphabet Coding Task-15 (information processing speed) were used to study cognitive decline. Follow-up data were collected after 3 and 6 years. Data were analyzed with generalized estimating equations, adjusted for age, sex, education, and depression. Results: Baseline memory complaints were reported by 25.5% of the cognitively intact elderly persons. Overall, 25.3% of the subjects were carriers of at least one APOE-⑀4 allele. Memory complaints were associated with a greater rate of decline in all cognitive measures, except immediate recall. In addition, APOE-⑀4 allele carriers had a greater rate of cognitive decline shown by MMSE scores and slower information processing speeds after 6 years. The effects of both memory complaints and APOE-⑀4 allele carriage were additive: subjects with both factors had a two times higher cognitive decline than did subjects without both factors. Conclusions: Both memory complaints and APOE-⑀4 allele carriage predict cognitive decline at an early stage. This finding highlights the importance of subjective memory complaints, which are important even at an early stage when objective tests are still unable to detect cognitive deficits and are especially important for elderly carriers of the APOE-⑀4 allele because they have an additional risk. NEUROLOGY 2001;57:2217-2222 Elderly persons with memory complaints are often depressed. 1,2 However, many population-based studies have reported that subjective memory complaints may predict future dementia. [3][4][5][6] Memory complaints also predict faster cognitive decline in elderly persons with mild cognitive impairment 7 as well as in elderly persons with normal cognition. 8 It is important to know which elderly persons will develop mild cognitive impairment as an early stage of dementia, because intervention may soon be feasible. 9 Because memory complaints can be easily assessed, they can identify persons who are at risk.Small et al. 10 studied individuals with mild memory complaints and found a higher proportion of memory complaints among APOE-⑀4 allele carriers than among non-APOE-⑀4 allele carriers. The APOE-⑀4 allele is the major known genetic risk factor for AD 11 and has been associated with objective cognitive decline. 12-17 Based on the findings of the cross-sectional study by Small et al., 10 prospective studies should include both APOE-⑀4 allele carriage and subjective memory complaints to determine how we...

Early breast cancer patients with a natural humoral response to MUC1 have a higher probability of freedom from distant failure and a better disease-specific survival. MUC1 antibodies may control hematogenic tumor dissemination and outgrowth by aiding the destruction of circulating or seeded MUC1-expressing tumor cells. Vaccination of breast cancer patients with MUC1-derived (glyco)peptides in an adjuvant setting may favorably influence the outcome of disease.

Background: Reported concentrations of amyloid ␤ (1-42) (A␤42) and tau in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) differ among reports. We investigated the effects of storage temperature, repeated freeze/thaw cycles, and centrifugation on the concentrations of A␤42 and tau in CSF. Methods: Stability of samples stored at ؊80°C was determined by use of an accelerated stability testing protocol according to the Arrhenius equation. A␤42 and tau concentrations were measured in CSF samples stored at 4, 18, 37, and ؊80°C. Relative CSF concentrations (%) of the biomarkers after one freeze/thaw cycle were compared with those after two, three, four, five, and six freeze/thaw cycles. In addition, relative A␤42 and tau concentrations in samples not centrifuged were compared with samples centrifuged after 1, 4, 48, and 72 h. Results: A␤42 and tau concentrations were stable in CSF when stored for a long period at ؊80°C. CSF A␤42 decreased by 20% during the first 2 days at 4, 18, and 37°C compared with ؊80°C. CSF tau decreased after storage for 12 days at 37°C. After three freeze/thaw cycles, CSF A␤42 decreased 20%. CSF tau was stable during six freeze/thaw cycles. Centrifugation did not influence the biomarker concentrations.

The combination of CSF Abeta42 and CSF Ptau-181 may help in differentiating EAD from FTLD.