Sex differences in the structural rich-club connectivity in patients with Alzheimer’s disease

Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

Aging Neuroscience

Geon Ha Kim¹  Sang Won Seo²  Jun Pyo Kim³  Hyemin Jang³  Yu Hyun Park⁴  Soo-Jong Kim⁴  Youn Jung Bae⁵  Joon-Kyung Seong⁶ 

[1] Department of Neurology, Ewha Womans University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea;Department of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea;Department of Intelligent Precision Healthcare Convergence, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea;Department of Health Sciences and Technology, SAIHST, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Republic of Korea;Alzheimer’s Disease Convergence Research Center, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea;Department of Digital Health, SAIHST, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Republic of Korea;Department of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea;Neuroscience Center, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea;Department of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea;Neuroscience Center, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea;Department of Intelligent Precision Healthcare Convergence, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea;Department of Health Sciences and Technology, SAIHST, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Republic of Korea;School of Biomedical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea;School of Biomedical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea;Department of Artificial Intelligence, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea;

关键词: sex differences;    structural brain network;    network analysis;    rich-club organization;    thalamus;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fnagi.2023.1209027

 received in 2023-04-20, accepted in 2023-08-24,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Background and objectivesAlzheimer’s disease (AD) is more prevalent in women than in men; however, there is a discrepancy in research on sex differences in AD. The human brain is a large-scale network with hub regions forming a central core, the rich-club, which is vital to cognitive functions. However, it is unknown whether alterations in the rich-clubs in AD differ between men and women. We aimed to investigate sex differences in the rich-club organization in the brains of patients with AD.MethodsIn total, 260 cognitively unimpaired individuals with negative amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) scans, 281 with prodromal AD (mild cognitive impairment due to AD) and 285 with AD dementia who confirmed with positive amyloid PET scans participated in the study. We obtained high-resolution T1-weighted and diffusion tensor images and performed network analysis.ResultsWe observed sex differences in the rich-club and feeder connections in patients with AD, suggesting lower structural connectivity strength in women than in men. We observed a significant group-by-sex interaction in the feeder connections, particularly in the thalamus. In addition, the connectivity strength of the thalamus in the feeder connections was significantly correlated with general cognitive function in only men with prodromal AD and women with AD dementia.ConclusionOur findings provide important evidence for sex-specific alterations in the structural brain network related to AD.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Kim, Bae, Park, Jang, Kim, Seo, Seong and Kim.