Sex-dependent end-of-life mental and vascular scenarios for compensatory mechanisms in mice with normal and ad-neurodegenerative aging

Abstract

Life expectancy decreases with aging, with cardiovascular, mental health, and neurode-generative disorders strongly contributing to the total disability-adjusted life years. Interestingly, the morbidity/mortality paradox points to females having a worse healthy life expectancy. Since bidirectional interactions between cardiovascular and Alzheimer’s diseases (AD) have been re-ported, the study of this emerging field is promising. In the present work, we further explored the cardiovascular–brain interactions in mice survivors of two cohorts of non-transgenic and 3xTg-AD mice, including both sexes, to investigate the frailty/survival through their life span. Survival, monitored from birth, showed exceptionally worse mortality rates in females than males, indepen-dently of the genotype. This mortality selection provided a “survivors” cohort that could unveil brain–cardiovascular interaction mechanisms relevant for normal and neurodegenerative aging processes restricted to long-lived animals. The results show sex-dependent distinct physical (worse in 3xTg-AD males), neuropsychiatric-like and cognitive phenotypes (worse in 3xTg-AD females), and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis activation (higher in females), with higher cerebral blood flow and improved cardiovascular phenotype in 3xTg-AD female mice survivors. The present study provides an experimental scenario to study the suggested potential compensatory hemodynamic mechanisms in end-of-life dementia, which is sex-dependent and can be a target for pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions.