Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
We have investigated the possible effect of estrogen on the metabolism of the Alzheimer amyloid precursor protein (APP). Using a cell line that contains high levels of estrogen receptors, we have found that treatment with physiological concentrations of 17 beta-estradiol is associated with accumulation in the conditioned medium of an amino-terminal cleavage product of APP (soluble APP or protease nexin-2), indicative of non-amyloidogenic processing. There were no obvious changes in the levels of intracellular immature or mature APP holoproteins, suggesting that estrogen may increase the secretory metabolism of APP.
Jaffe et al. (Sun,) studied this question.