Abstract
Chronic systemic low-grade inflammation is associated with aging, but little is known on whether age-related inflammation affects brain structure, particularly white matter. The current study tested the hypothesis that in older adults without dementia, higher serum levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) are associated with reduced corpus callosum (CC) areas. French community-dwelling subjects (ESPRIT study) aged 65 and older (N=101) underwent hs-CRP testing and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Multiple linear regression models were carried out. In the unadjusted model, higher hs-CRP level was significantly associated with smaller anterior, mid, and total midsagittal CC areas, but not with the posterior CC area. These associations were independent of demographic characteristics and intracranial volume. After adjustment for body mass index, diabetes, inflammation-related chronic pathologies and white matter lesions (WML), only the associations between hs-CRP level and smaller anterior and total midsagittal CC areas were still significant, although weaker. These findings suggest that low-grade inflammation is associated with CC structural integrity alterations in older adults independently of physical or neuropsychiatric pathologies.
Highlights
In humans, aging is associated with chronic systemic lowgrade inflammation that is increasingly defined as "inflammaging" [1]
The third model took into account all possible confounders and mediators by adjusting for factors that were significantly associated with High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) level in the crude analyses (P
We found that higher hs-CRP levels were associated with smaller anterior, mid and total midsagittal corpus callosum (CC) areas
Summary
In humans, aging is associated with chronic systemic lowgrade inflammation that is increasingly defined as "inflammaging" [1]. CC is the main commissure between the cerebral hemispheres It contains between 200 and 800 million axon fibers and is of crucial importance for interconnecting associative brain areas that play a pivotal role in the integration of inter-hemispheric information and higher cognitive functions. Only one study assessed hs-CRP level in relation to DTI imaging parameters [12], including the CC, but none have focused on the investigation of hs-CRP and CC by using structural MRI data. The objective of this study was to test whether in a community sample of older adults (from 65 to 80 years of age) without dementia, higher hs-CRP serum levels are associated with reduced size of specific CC sub-regions calculated from brain structural MRI images, by taking into account potential confounding factors, such as physical and neuropsychiatric comorbidities
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