Liu Jiao, Tao Jing, Cai Guiyan, Chen Jie, Zhao Lei, Wang Yajun, Xu Shurui, Chen Ruilin, Hu Li, Cao Jin, Chen Lidian, Tu Yiheng
National-Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Rehabilitation Medicine Technology, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, Fujian 350122, China.
College of Rehabilitation Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, Fujian 350122, China.
Cereb Cortex. 2023 Oct 9;33(20):10584-10594. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhad305.
Patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA) often suffer from cognitive decline and increased dementia risk, but the neurobiological mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we evaluated cognitive performance and collected brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data and blood samples from cognitively normal KOA patients at baseline sessions and reevaluated their cognition after 5 years. We also collected MRI data from matched healthy controls. Results showed that KOA patients exhibited dysregulated functional connectivities between the hippocampus and thalamus/superior frontal gyrus compared with healthy controls. The altered hippocampal functional connectivities were associated with serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels and spatial expression of genes enriched in synaptic plasticity. The hippocampus-thalamus functional connectivity was significantly correlated with patients' memory scores. Moreover, the baseline hippocampus-thalamus functional connectivity and BDNF levels significantly predicted the development of cognitive decline in KOA patients in the follow-up session. Our findings provide insight into the neurobiological underpinnings of KOA and cognitive decline.
膝骨关节炎（KOA）患者常伴有认知能力下降和痴呆风险增加，但神经生物学机制尚不清楚。在本研究中，我们评估了认知功能，并在基线期收集了认知正常的KOA患者的脑磁共振成像（MRI）数据和血样，5年后对其认知能力进行了重新评估。我们还收集了匹配的健康对照者的MRI数据。结果显示，与健康对照者相比，KOA患者海马体与丘脑/额上回之间的功能连接失调。海马体功能连接的改变与血清脑源性神经营养因子（BDNF）水平及富含突触可塑性的基因的空间表达有关。海马体-丘脑功能连接与患者的记忆评分显著相关。此外，基线期海马体-丘脑功能连接和BDNF水平显著预测了随访期KOA患者认知能力下降的发展。我们的研究结果为KOA和认知能力下降的神经生物学基础提供了见解。
