News Article: More Evidence to Support that Alzheimer’s is More Likely to Be Inherited from Mother

Years of evidence has suggested that one is more likely to inherit Alzheimer’s disease from their mother than from their father, and a new study has reaffirmed this theory. The study was published in the March 1, 2011 print issue of Neurology.

It has been estimated that those whose parents had Alzheimer’s disease are four to 10 times more likely to develop the disease themselves than those with no family history, study author, Robyn Honea of Kansas School of Medicine, said.

The study involved 53 dementia-free participants ages 60 and over who were followed for a period of two years. Eleven of the 53 had a mother with Alzheimer’s disease, 10 had a father with the disease and 32 had no history of the disease in their family. Throughout the study, the participants were given brain scans and cognitive tests.

The results showed that those whose mothers had Alzheimer’s experienced twice as much gray matter shrinkage in the brain – a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease – than those who had a father or no parent with the disease. Also those whose mothers had Alzheimer’s showed roughly one and a half times more brain shrinkage – another occurrence in Alzheimer’s disease – per year compared with those whose fathers had the disease.

“Understanding how the disease may be inherited could lead to better prevention and treatment strategies,” said Honea.