Estrogen restores cognition and cholinergic phenotype in an animal model of Down syndrome

Estrogen maintains normal function of basal forebrain (BF) cholinergic neurons and estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) has therefore been proposed as a therapy for Alzheimer's disease (AD). We provide evidence to support this hypothesis in an animal model of Down syndrome (DS), a chromosome 16 segmental trisomy (Ts65Dn) mouse. These mice develop cholinergic degeneration similar to young adults with DS and AD patients. ERT has not been tested in women with DS, even though they are more likely than normosomic women to develop early menopause and AD. Female Ts65Dn and normosomic mice (11-15 months) received a subcutaneous estrogen pellet or a sham operation. After 60 days, estrogen treatment improved learning of a T-maze task and normalized behavior in the Ts65Dn mice in reversal learning of the task, a measure of cognitive flexibility. Stereological evaluation of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) immunopositive BF neurons showed that estrogen increased cell size and total number of cholinergic neurons in the medial septum of Ts65Dn mice. In addition, estrogen increased NGF protein levels in the BF of trisomic mice. These findings support the emerging hypothesis that estrogen may play a protective role during neurodegeneration and cognitive decline, particularly in cholinergic BF neuronal systems underlying cognition. The findings also indicate that estrogen may act, at least partially, via endogenous growth factors. Collectively, the data suggest that ERT may be a viable therapeutic approach for women with DS coupled with dementia.