Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
Department of Endocrinology, Coimbra University and Hospital Centre (CHUC), Coimbra, Portugal.
Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2023 Feb 17;14:1135358. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1135358. eCollection 2023.
Brain atrophy has been consistently associated with type 2 diabetes, beginning in early stages of dysglycemia, independently from micro and macrovascular complications. On the contrary, physical activity relates with larger brain volumes. Our aim is to assess the influence of regular physical activity on brain volumes in people with type 2 diabetes.
A cross-sectional multimodal evaluation with 3T MRI was performed on 170 individuals: 85 individuals with type 2 diabetes and 85 controls. They underwent clinical examination, blood sampling and 3T MRI. Brain volumes (mm) were estimated using FreeSurfer 7. Physical activity duration was self-reported by the participants as the number of hours of physical activity per week for at least the previous 6 months. Statistical analysis was performed with IBM SPSS 27.
People with type 2 diabetes had significantly lower cortical and subcortical volumes, adjusted for age and individual intracranial volume, comparing to controls. Regression analysis showed that within type 2 diabetes group, lower gray matter volumes were associated with lesser physical activity duration (hours/week), independently from HbA1c. Moreover, there were significant moderate positive correlations between regular physical activity duration and gray matter volumes of cortical and subcortical subregions, specifically in the diabetes group.
This study reveals a putative beneficial effect of regular physical activity independently of glycemic control, as assessed by HbA1c, which might contribute to reduce the negative impact of type 2 diabetes in the brain.
脑萎缩与 2 型糖尿病密切相关，早在糖代谢异常的早期阶段，就与微血管和大血管并发症无关。相反，身体活动与更大的脑容量有关。我们的目的是评估有规律的身体活动对 2 型糖尿病患者脑容量的影响。
对 170 名个体进行了横断面多模态 3T MRI 评估：85 名 2 型糖尿病患者和 85 名对照者。他们接受了临床检查、血液采样和 3T MRI 检查。使用 FreeSurfer 7 估计脑容量（mm）。参与者通过自我报告报告了身体活动时间，即过去 6 个月内每周进行身体活动的小时数。统计分析使用 IBM SPSS 27 进行。
与对照组相比，2 型糖尿病患者的皮质和皮质下体积明显较小，调整了年龄和个体颅内体积。回归分析表明，在 2 型糖尿病组中，灰质体积较低与身体活动时间（小时/周）较少有关，独立于 HbA1c。此外，在 2 型糖尿病患者中，有规律的身体活动时间与皮质和皮质下各区域的灰质体积之间存在显著的中度正相关。
这项研究揭示了有规律的身体活动对血糖控制（HbA1c）的潜在有益影响，这可能有助于减少 2 型糖尿病对大脑的负面影响。
