Witt Atlee A, Combes Anna J E, Sengupta Anirban, Zhang Xinyu, Stubblefield Seth, McKnight Colin D, McGonigle Trey, McGrath Megan, Stewart Isabella, Sweeney Grace, Prock Logan E, Houston Delaney, Vandekar Simon, O'Grady Kristin P, Rogers Baxter, Gore John, Smith Seth A
Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States.
School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States.
Imaging Neurosci (Camb). 2025 Jun 20;3. doi: 10.1162/IMAG.a.51. eCollection 2025.
The clinical picture of persons with multiple sclerosis (pwMS), a neuroinflammatory disease characterized by demyelination, does not consistently correlate with pathology noted on clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Functional MRI (fMRI) is a valuable tool to understand neural network alterations resulting from structural damage, with studies in the brain employing both region-of-interest and data-driven assessment of functional connectivity. However, similar studies in the spinal cord (SC) remain limited given the challenge of imaging a small structure in an area with substantial physiologic noise. We sought to apply resting-state fMRI at 3T in the SC of healthy controls (HC) and persons with relapsing-remitting MS (pwRRMS) to assess differences in functional connectivity and relate functional markers to clinicial measures of disability. Consistent with prior SC studies, we determined strongest functional connectivity between ventral gray matter horns in both HCs and pwMS and diminished mobility associated with reduced functional connectivity. Using independent-component analysis, we observed a possible compensatory mechanism of increased connectivity in earlier compared with later stages of relapsing-remitting MS. Further exploration is warranted, and our findings support the notion of functional alterations in the SC of pwMS.
多发性硬化症（pwMS）患者的临床表现，是一种以脱髓鞘为特征的神经炎症性疾病，与临床磁共振成像（MRI）上显示的病理情况并不总是相关。功能磁共振成像（fMRI）是理解结构损伤导致的神经网络改变的一种有价值的工具，针对大脑的研究采用了感兴趣区域和功能连接的数据驱动评估方法。然而，鉴于在一个存在大量生理噪声的区域对一个小结构进行成像存在挑战，脊髓（SC）方面的类似研究仍然有限。我们试图在3T条件下对健康对照者（HC）和复发缓解型多发性硬化症患者（pwRRMS）的脊髓进行静息态功能磁共振成像，以评估功能连接的差异，并将功能标记与残疾的临床指标相关联。与先前的脊髓研究一致，我们确定了健康对照者和多发性硬化症患者腹侧灰质角之间最强的功能连接，以及与功能连接减少相关的活动能力下降。通过独立成分分析，我们观察到复发缓解型多发性硬化症早期与晚期相比，可能存在一种连接性增加的代偿机制。有必要进行进一步探索，我们的研究结果支持了复发缓解型多发性硬化症患者脊髓功能改变的观点。
