■在成年和衰老过程中,白质(WM)结构和组织的特征是缓慢的降解过程,例如脱髓鞘和收缩。这种衰老过程的加速与一系列疾病的发展有关。因此,对大脑健康成熟的准确描述,特别是在WM特征方面,是理解衰老的基础。
■我们使用纵向扩散磁共振成像来概述英国生物库(UKB)中不同时空尺度的WM变化(n=2678;年龄1=62.38±7.23年;年龄2=64.81±7.1年)。为了检查WM结构与常见临床状况之间的遗传重叠,我们测试了最常见的神经退行性疾病的WM结构和多基因风险评分之间的关联,老年痴呆症,和常见的精神疾病(单相和双相抑郁症,焦虑,强迫症,自闭症,精神分裂症,注意缺陷/多动障碍)在纵向(n=2329)和横截面(n=31,056)UKB验证数据中。
■我们的发现表明整个大脑空间分布的WM变化,以及多基因风险评分与WM的分布关联。重要的是,大脑纵向变化比使用的横断面措施更好地反映了疾病发展的遗传风险,与全球平均水平相比,区域差异为基因-大脑变化关联提供了更具体的见解。
■我们通过提供不同空间水平上的WM微观结构退化的详细概述来扩展最近的发现,帮助了解基本的大脑衰老过程。需要进一步的纵向研究来检查与衰老相关的基因-大脑关联。
在他们的研究中,Korbmacher等人。大脑白质中健康衰老过程的基准。在较高年龄时白质退化的发现与最近的横截面和纵向发现一致,特别是概述了脑室附近和小脑白质的变化。还发现退化过程在更高的年龄加速。最后,在健康衰老的参与者中,多基因风险发展为精神病和神经退行性疾病与白质改变弱相关。
UNASSIGNED: During the course of adulthood and aging, white matter (WM) structure and organization are characterized by slow degradation processes such as demyelination and shrinkage. An acceleration of such aging processes has been linked to the development of a range of diseases. Thus, an accurate description of healthy brain maturation, particularly in terms of WM features, is fundamental to the understanding of aging.
UNASSIGNED: We used longitudinal diffusion magnetic resonance imaging to provide an overview of WM changes at different spatial and temporal scales in the UK Biobank (UKB) (n = 2678; agescan 1 = 62.38 ± 7.23 years; agescan 2 = 64.81 ± 7.1 years). To examine the genetic overlap between WM structure and common clinical conditions, we tested the associations between WM structure and polygenic risk scores for the most common neurodegenerative disorder, Alzheimer\'s disease, and common psychiatric disorders (unipolar and bipolar depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, autism, schizophrenia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) in longitudinal (n = 2329) and cross-sectional (n = 31,056) UKB validation data.
UNASSIGNED: Our findings indicate spatially distributed WM changes across the brain, as well as distributed associations of polygenic risk scores with WM. Importantly, brain longitudinal changes reflected genetic risk for disorder development better than the utilized cross-sectional measures, with regional differences giving more specific insights into gene-brain change associations than global averages.
UNASSIGNED: We extend recent findings by providing a detailed overview of WM microstructure degeneration on different spatial levels, helping to understand fundamental brain aging processes. Further longitudinal research is warranted to examine aging-related gene-brain associations.
In their study, Korbmacher et al. benchmark healthy aging processes in the brain’s white matter. Findings of degrading white matter at higher ages were consistent with recent cross-sectional and longitudinal findings, particularly outlining changes in ventricle-near and cerebellar white matter. Degenerative processes were also found to accelerate at a higher age. Finally, the polygenic risk to develop psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders was weakly associated with the white matter change in the otherwise healthily aging participants.