Sex-specific effects of central adiposity and inflammatory markers on limbic microstructure

Publication date: 1 April 2019Source: NeuroImage, Volume 189Author(s): Claudia Metzler-Baddeley, Jilu P. Mole, Erika Leonaviciute, Rebecca Sims, Emma J. Kidd, Benyamin Ertefai, Aurora Kelso-Mitchell, Florence Gidney, Fabrizio Fasano, John Evans, Derek K. Jones, Roland J. BaddeleyAbstractMidlife obesity is a risk factor of late onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) but why this is the case remains unknown. As systemic inflammation is involved in both conditions, obesity-related neuroinflammation may contribute to damage in limbic structures important in LOAD. Here, we investigated the hypothesis that systemic inflammation would mediate central obesity related effects on limbic tissue microstructure in 166 asymptomatic individuals (38–71 years old). We employed MRI indices sensitive to myelin and neuroinflammation [macromolecular proton fraction (MPF) and kf] from quantitative magnetization transfer (qMT) together with indices from neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) to investigate the effects of central adiposity on the fornix, parahippocampal cingulum, uncinate fasciculus (compared with whole brain white matter and corticospinal tract) and the hippocampus. Central obesity was assessed with the Waist Hip Ratio (WHR) and abdominal visceral and subcutaneous fat area fractions (VFF, SFF), and systemic inflammation with blood plasma concentrations of leptin, adiponectin, C-reactive protein and interleukin 8. Men were significantly more centrally obese and had h...
Source: NeuroImage - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research