Foret Janelle T, Caillaud Marie, Gourley Drew D, Dekhtyar Maria, Tanaka Hirofumi, Haley Andreana P
Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
Aging Brain. 2022 Oct 14;2:100053. doi: 10.1016/j.nbas.2022.100053. eCollection 2022.
Recent reports document sex differences in midlife brain integrity and metabolic health, such that more relationships are detectable between metabolic syndrome (MetS) components and markers of brain health in females than in males. Midlife is characterized by a rapid decrease in endogenous estrogen levels for women which is thought to increase risk for cardiometabolic disease and neurocognitive decline. Our study used network models, designed to explore the interconnectedness and organization of relationships among many variables at once, to compare the influence of endogenous estrogen and chronological age on a network of brain and metabolic health in order to investigate the utility of estrogen as a biomarker for brain vulnerability. Data were analyzed from 82 females (ages 40-62). Networks consisted of known biomarkers of risk for late-life cognitive decline: the five components of MetS; Brain-predicted age difference calculated on gray and white matter volume; white matter hyperintensities; Default Mode Network functional connectivity; cerebral concentrations of -acetyl aspartate, glutamate and myo-inositol; and serum concentrations of estradiol. A second network replaced estradiol with chronological age. Expected influence (EI) of estradiol on the network was -1.190, relative to chronological age at -0.524, indicating that estradiol had a stronger expected influence over the network than age. A negative expected influence indicates that higher levels of estradiol would be expected to decrease the number of relationships in the model, which is thought to indicate lower risk. Overall, levels of estradiol appear more influential than chronological age at midlife for relationships between brain integrity and metabolic health.
最近的报告记录了中年时期大脑完整性和代谢健康方面的性别差异，即与男性相比，女性代谢综合征（MetS）各组分与大脑健康标志物之间的关联更多。中年女性的内源性雌激素水平迅速下降，这被认为会增加心血管代谢疾病和神经认知衰退的风险。我们的研究使用网络模型（旨在同时探索多个变量之间的相互联系和关系组织）来比较内源性雌激素和实际年龄对大脑与代谢健康网络的影响，以研究雌激素作为大脑易损性生物标志物的效用。对82名女性（年龄在40 - 62岁之间）的数据进行了分析。网络由已知的晚年认知衰退风险生物标志物组成：MetS的五个组分；根据灰质和白质体积计算的大脑预测年龄差异；白质高信号；默认模式网络功能连接性；脑内N - 乙酰天门冬氨酸、谷氨酸和肌醇的浓度；以及血清雌二醇浓度。第二个网络用实际年龄取代了雌二醇。相对于实际年龄的预期影响（EI）为 - 0.524，雌二醇对该网络的预期影响为 - 1.190，这表明雌二醇对该网络的预期影响比年龄更强。负的预期影响表明，较高水平的雌二醇预计会减少模型中的关系数量，这被认为表明风险较低。总体而言，在中年时期，就大脑完整性与代谢健康之间的关系而言，雌二醇水平似乎比实际年龄更具影响力。
