Controversy remains regarding whether there is an association between circulating lipoproteinassociated phospholipase A 2 (Lp-PLA 2 ), cytokines, and oxidative stress in healthy postmenopausal women. We investigated the influence of age on Lp-PLA 2 activity in postmenopausal women not using hormone therapy and the relationship of Lp-PLA 2 enzyme activity to serum cytokine levels and oxidative stress indices. Normal weight (n = 1284) and overweight/obese (n = 707) postmenopausal women not using hormone therapy were categorized into five age groups: 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69, and 70-89 years. Overweight-obese women showed higher plasma Lp-PLA 2 activity, urinary 8-epiprostaglandin F 2α (8-epi-PGF 2α ), serum interleukin (IL)-6, and smaller LDL particles than normal-weight women after adjusting for age, years postmenopause, smoking, drinking, blood pressure, glucose, insulin, lipid profiles, BMI, and waist circumference. Overweight/obese women 70-89 years old showed higher Lp-PLA 2 activity than those aged 50-54 years, whereas no significant difference in Lp-PLA 2 activity existed across normal-weight female age groups. Overweight/obese women aged ≥65 years showed higher Lp-PLA 2 , oxidized LDL (ox-LDL), IL-6, and 8-epi-PGF 2α than age-matched normal-weight controls. Overweight/obese women aged ≥70 years had higher ox-LDL levels than those aged 50-59, and overweight/obese women aged 65-89 showed higher IL-6 and 8-epi-PGF 2α . There were strong positive correlations between Lp-PLA 2 and ox-LDL (r = 0.385, P<0.001), Lp-PLA 2 and IL-6 (r=0.293, P<0.001), and ox-LDL and IL-6 (r=0.303, P<0.001) in overweight/ obese women; however, these relationships were weak in normal-weight women. These results suggest that aging and obesity-related oxidative and inflammatory mediators are associated with Lp-PLA 2 activity in overweight/obese postmenopausal women not using hormone therapy.

Utilizing immunocytochemistry on the rat, somatostatin (somatotropin-release-inhibiting hormone) has been demonstrated in the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis (OVLT), throughout most of the cephalocaudal extent of the median eminence, and in the upper segment of the infundibular stem (1,2; Baker, unpublished). The significant storage of somatostatin in the median eminence and infundibular stem has been confirmed by radioimmunoassay performed on the tissue of this area (3). Similarly, by means of immunofluorescence, somatostatin has been demonstrated in the median eminence of the guinea pig (4).Because of the probability that pituitary somatotropin exerts a short-loop feedback effect on hypothalamic somatostatin, an examination of the influence of hypophysectomy on the content of somatostatin in the OVLT, median eminence, and infundibular stem is of special interest. This paper reports the results of such a study in which immunocytochemistry was used for the demonstration of somatostatin. Materials and methods.Of 20 young-adult female Sprague-Dawley rats, 10 were hypophysectomized by the parapharyngeal approach and 10 served as controls. The rats were maintained on a lighting schedule of 14-hr light/lO-hr darkness. They ate ad libitum. Twenty-eight to 133 days after hypophysectomy, operated rats paired with nonoperated control rats were killed by decapitation. An area of the brain encompassing the OVLT, the hypothalamus, and pituitary stem was excised, fixed in Bouin's fluid, embedded in Paraplast, and sectioned. Immunocytochemistry was performed with the peroxidase-an tiperoxidase (PAP) met hod