Maternal link to Alzheimer's suggested

NEW YORK, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they have found more evidence of a maternal genetic link to Alzheimer's disease.

New York University researchers found reductions in glucose brain metabolism among individuals with a maternal history of Alzheimer's disease, but not among those with a paternal history of the disease or those with neither parent affected.

This lack of ability for the brain to use glucose efficiently seen in those whose mothers had Alzheimer's may predispose such people to Alzheimer's disease.

"Our new study shows that subjects with a mother with Alzheimer's show similarities with Alzheimer's patients," study leader Lisa Mosconi of the Center for Brain Health at the NYU Langone Medical Center said in a statement. "They have metabolic reductions in the brain regions that are typically affected by Alzheimer's disease, which worsen over time."

Using positron emission tomography, or PET, scans and a technique that labels glucose with a chemical tracer, the researchers studied glucose metabolism in the brains of 66 cognitively normal subjects between ages 50 and 82 over a two-year period. Twenty had mothers with the disease, nine had fathers with Alzheimer's and the rest had no family history of the disease.

The finding was presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Alzheimer's Disease Conference in Chicago.