The cells of women are stronger and survive more than the cells of men under environmental stress and medication. This aspect was highlighted by the studies conducted by the Italian National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità – ISS) and presented during the meeting “Gender Health”, held in Rome on the 8 of June, 2010). Human cells in men and women are different not only in the chromosomes but also for their fate.

The three dimensions of space provide our relationship to position on the earth, but the fourth dimension of time has an equally profound influence on our lives. Everything from light and sound to weather and biology operate on the principle of measurable temporal periodicity. Consequently, a wide variety of time clocks affect all aspects of our existence. The annual (and biannual) cycles of activity, metabolism, and mating, the monthly physiological clocks of women and men, and the 24-h diurnal rhythms of humans are prime examples.

Several studies have reported that different cognitive tests are differentially associated with gender. In this study Amieva and colleagues applied a new latent cognitive factor approach to evaluate the impact of gender on cognitive aging and distinguish the effect of this on psychometric tests. The analysis was conducted on a sample of 2228 subjects (1264 women and 964 men) from PAQUID ( Personnes Agèes QUID), a population-based cohort of older adults followed for 13 years with repeated measures of cognition.

The presence of the apolipoprotein E4 allele (APOE4) has been associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Moreover, APOE4 has been associated with greater hippocampal atrophy in women than in men with AD.
Studies demonstrating this relationship in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), that is considered the prodromal phase for AD, are lacking. Fleisher and coll. evaluated the association among the number of
APOE4 alleles, memory performance, and hippocampal volume in 86 women and

The prefrontal cortex is sensitive to the effect of ageing, as measured by decreases in brain and grey matter volume. Moreover, sex hormones have a role in the emergence and maintenance of frontal and prefrontal structures, but reports of sex differences in prefrontal cortical ageing have been inconsistent. Sixty-eight healthy males and females aged 20 to 72 years underwent high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging. Volumes for four regional prefrontal subfields per hemisphere (medial and lateral, dorsal and

The use of prosthetic implants for joint replacement is one of the most significant successes of orthopaedic surgery and led to improvement of the quality of life of may patients. It is however known that these implants are not built to last forever. One of the main complications occurring in the long term after, for example, hip replacement surgery, is aseptic loosening. This occurs because of periprosthetic osteolysis and, although a few prognostic risk factors have been identified, most of them show inconsistent results.

Posted by
Adele Lucchelli - Working Group on Aging
Dipartimento di Farmacologia Sperimentale ed Applicata
Università di Pavia
Viale Taramelli 14
27100 Pavia
adele.lucchelli@unipv.it

Gender-related differences have been reported in the activity of CYP isoforms, which can differently affect drug metabolism in male and female.
Referring to the different CYP isoforms no clear-cut evidences have been found and the question of the role of gender on CYP mediated drug disposition is still controversial.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the association between aging and myocardial TG content and to determine the effect of myocardial TG content on heart function using MRS (H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy) and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) techniques. 43 healthy male, all subjects were Caucasian males with a mean age of 44 years (range 20-66), BMI was 25.9±3.1. All subjects were normotensive (mean systolic blood pressure 118±12 mmHg, mean diastolic blood pressure 70±8 mmHg) and normoglycaemic (mean plasma glucose levels 5.1±0.4 mmol/L).

The authors studied the effect of healthy aging on the cardiovascular homeostatic mechanism in premenopausal and postmenopausal women with similar estrogen levels. 12 healthy postmenopausal women, confirmed by follicular-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteal hormone (LH) levels, were compared with 14 normally menstruating women during the early follicular phase (young-EF), to avoid as much as possible the effects of estrogen.

Early age at menopause is a major determinant of the lifetime risks of cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, and less markedly of breast and genital tract cancers. Thus a definition of the determinants of age at menopause has potential speculative interest as a means of identifying women and quantifying the risk for these conditions. The authors analysed the mean age at menopause and its determinants in about 31,000 women attending menopause clinics in Italy. The authors considered 31,834 women aged 55 years or more and in spontaneous menopause who had entered the study up until March 2003.