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Objective: The primary objective was to investigate the association between early menopause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevalence in Japanese women. The secondary objective was to ascertain the association with CVD risk factors., Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 7,239 naturally menopausal women from the Yamagata Cohort Study who completed an annual health visit and questionnaire between 2009 and 2015 were divided into three groups according to their age at menopause (women experiencing menopause at <45, 45-49 y, and ≥ 50 y). The diagnosis of coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke were made by self-report, while hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes mellitus, were diagnosed by vital signs and laboratory parameters. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the associations between age at menopause and CVD prevalence and CVD risk factors., Results: A total of 354 (4.9%) and 156 (2.2%) women reported a history of CHD and stroke, respectively. Women experiencing menopause at <45 years had a higher prevalence of CHD than those experiencing menopause at ≥50 years (OR 1.77, 95% CI 1.07-2.90; P = 0.023). Stroke, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and hyperlipidemia were equally prevalent among the three groups. Significant interactions were observed between age at menopause and body mass index (BMI) (P = 0.025) and parity (P = 0.025). Among those with a BMI < 18.5 or parity ≥2, women experiencing menopause at <45 years had a significantly higher prevalence of CHD than those experiencing menopause at ≥50 years., Conclusion: Early menopause and low BMI were associated with CHD in Japanese women., Competing Interests: Financial disclosures/conflicts of interest: S.N. has received funding from Chugai Pharmaceutical Co, Ltd and AstraZeneca. The other authors have nothing to disclose., (Copyright © 2022 by The North American Menopause Society.)

Nucleotide sequence analysis of the major non-coding region of human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from three major races was extended with data from 27 contemporary Mongoloids (20 from southeast Asia, seven from America) and 11 Ancient Japanese bones (five from Jomon Age; 3000-6000 years BP, six from the early modern Ainu; 200-300 years BP). In both cases, the sequence was determined directly from the polymerase chain reaction products. Based on a comparison of the 482 base pair sequences from a total of 128 contemporary humans, the nucleotide diversity is estimated to be 1.46%, which is three times higher than the corresponding value estimated from restriction-enzyme analysis of the whole mtDNA genome. The phylogenetic tree revealed that all lineages are classified into at least five clusters designated as C1-C5. C1 consists exclusively of Africans, and most Asians and Europeans formed C2, C3, C5 and C4, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis also indicated that part of the Asians, including the Japanese, subsequently diverged from the majority of Africans, and that Asians can therefore be separated into two distinct groups. Native Americans, however, appeared only in C3 and C5, suggesting that the size of the founder population was not so large during the peopling of American. Nucleotide sequences derived from ancient bones in a highly polymorphic region were also compared with those of contemporary humans. The nucleotide diversity among the 139 sequences in the region was estimated to be 2.26%. A group of ancient Japanese, including both Jomon peoples and the Ainu, showed a close phylogenetic affiliation with one group of contemporary Japanese and southeast Asians.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)