Schedule of Events | Search Abstracts | Invited Symposia | Symposia | Poster Sessions | Data Blitz

White matter integrity in early midlife women with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy

Poster Session C - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 5:00 – 7:00 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballrooms

Sophia Zhao¹ (sophiayt.zhao@mail.utoronto.ca), Lindsey Thurston¹, Michael Howard¹, Gillian Einstein^1,2; ¹University of Toronto, ²Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Academy for Research and Education

Estrogens, a group of key ovarian steroids, play an important role in the regulation of cognition and brain structure, thus affecting later life Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) risks. While current research has mainly focused on examining gray matter structural changes in the brain, less studies have reported on white matter changes, and it is not known how white matter related to estrogens loss in women in early midlife. Changes in white matter have been reported as one of the earlier pathologies of AD, with some markers showing up in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) pathology preceding AD. Therefore, the intersection of estrogens and white matter is crucial for understanding early cognitive decline in women and why women are disproportionally affected by AD compared to men, as 2/3 of AD patients are women. We propose that estrogens affect both gray matter hippocampal volumes as well as white matter integrity in regions across the brain. Women with ovarian removal surgery, often as prophylaxis for ovarian cancer, are recruited along with age-matched premenopausal controls and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is performed. Women with ovarian removal demonstrated lower fractional anisotropy (FA) and higher mean diffusivity (MD) compared to controls. Women with ovarian removal taking estradiol therapy demonstrated an intermediate phenotype, with some recuperated but not a full regain in functioning. These preliminary results demonstrate the importance of studying white matter changes as an early biomarker of later life AD.

Topic Area: METHODS: Neuroimaging