Find in Library

The effect of gender on systemic and brain levels of copper is relatively understudied. We examined gender effects in mice and human subjects. We observed a trend to higher serum copper levels in female compared to male LaFerla “triple transgenic” (1399±233 versus 804±436 ng/mL, P=0.06) mice, and significantly higher brain copper levels in female- versus male wild-type mice (5.2±0.2 versus 4.18±0.3 ng/mg wet wt, P=0.03). Plasma copper was significantly correlated with brain copper in mice (R2 = 0.218; P=0.038). Among human subjects with AD, both plasma copper (1284±118 versus 853±81 ng/mL, P=0.005) and cerebrospinal fluid copper (12.8±1 versus 10.4±0.7 ng/mL, P=0.01) were elevated in women compared to men. Among healthy control subjects, plasma copper (1008±51 versus 836±41 ng/mL; P=0.01) was higher in women than in men, but there was no difference in cerebrospinal fluid copper. We conclude that gender differences in copper status may influence copper-mediated pathological events in the brain.