Cholesterol may be Alzheimer's culprit

INNSBRUCK, Austria, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- Austrian researchers suggest a high fat/high cholesterol diet may play a role in brain damage linked to Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers at the Laboratory of Psychiatry and Experimental Alzheimer's Research at the Medical University Innsbruck in Austria say rats fed a high fat/cholesterol diet demonstrated brain pathologies associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Dr. Christian Humpel and colleagues fed male 6-month-old rats either normal food -- the control group -- or a special 5 percent cholesterol-enriched diet that would result in hypercholesterolemia. After five months, the animals were tested for behavioral impairments and pathological markers associated with Alzheimer's disease in humans.

The study, published in Molecular Cellular Neuroscience, found chronic hypercholesterolemia in rats associated with Alzheimer's disease-like pathologies including memory impairment, inflammation and enhanced beta-amyloids in the brain.

"The data are in line with earlier studies showing that high fat lipids, including cholesterol, may participate in the development of sporadic Alzheimer's disease," the study authors say in a statement.

However, the researchers caution it cannot be speculated high cholesterol alone contributes to these pathologies but rather, may be among the different risk factors involved.