Abstract
Aging-related cognitive decline can be accelerated by a combination of genetic factors, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular dysfunction, and amyloid-beta burden. Whereas cerebral blood flow (CBF) has been studied as a potential early biomarker of cognitive decline, its normal variability in healthy elderly is less known. In this study, we investigated the contribution of genetic, vascular, and amyloid-beta components of CBF in a cognitively unimpaired (CU) population of monozygotic older twins. We included 134 participants who underwent arterial spin labeling (ASL) MRI and [F-18]flutemetamol amyloid-PET imaging at baseline and after a four-year follow-up. Generalized estimating equations were used to investigate the associations of amyloid burden and white matter hyperintensities with CBF. We showed that, in CU individuals, CBF: 1) has a genetic component, as within-pair similarities in CBF values were moderate and significant (ICC > 0.40); 2) is negatively associated with cerebrovascular damage; and 3) is positively associated with the interaction between cardiovascular risk scores and early amyloid-beta burden, which may reflect a vascular compensatory response of CBF to early amyloid-beta accumulation. These findings encourage future studies to account for multiple interactions with CBF in disease trajectory analyses.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1726-1736 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism |
Volume | 43 |
Issue number | 10 |
Early online date | 1 May 2023 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Oct 2023 |
Keywords
- Arterial spin labeling (ASL)
- cerebral blood flow (CBF)
- twin analysis
- white matter hyperintensities
- Alzheimer's disease
- WHITE-MATTER HYPERINTENSITIES
- ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE
- COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT
- BRAIN
- PATHOLOGY
- PERFUSION
- MODEL
- DYSFUNCTION
- DEMENTIA
- VOLUME