Abdominal obesity and lower gray matter volume: a Mendelian randomization study
Neurobiology of Aging. 2014-02-01; 35(2): 378-386
DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2013.07.022
Read on PubMed
1. Neurobiol Aging. 2014 Feb;35(2):378-86. doi:
10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2013.07.022. Epub 2013 Aug 31.
Abdominal obesity and lower gray matter volume: a Mendelian randomization study.
Debette S(1), Wolf C, Lambert JC, Crivello F, Soumaré A, Zhu YC, Schilling S,
Dufouil C, Mazoyer B, Amouyel P, Tzourio C, Elbaz A.
Author information:
(1)INSERM, Neuroepidemiology U708, Paris and Bordeaux, France; Department of
Epidemiology, University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Garches,
France; Department of Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston,
MA, USA; Department of Neurology, Lariboisière Hospital, Paris 7 University,
Paris, France. Electronic address: .
We investigated the relationship of anthropometric markers of obesity with
quantitative magnetic resonance imaging markers of brain aging, including
measures of total brain volume (TBV), gray matter volume (GMV), hippocampal
volume, white matter hyperintensity volume (WMHV), and brain infarcts, and
examined causality using Mendelian randomization (MR). Analyses were performed in
1779 individuals (60.4% women, 72.8 ± 4.1 years of age) from the 3C-Dijon
population-based cohort study (N = 1555 for the MR). Larger waist-to-hip-ratio
(WHR) and waist circumference (WC) were associated with lower TBV (p = 0.0001 and
p = 0.005), and lower GMV (p = 0.0008 and p = 0.003), independently of age,
gender, body mass index (BMI), and vascular risk factors. Higher BMI, WC, and WHR
were associated with larger WMHV and WC with brain infarcts, before adjusting for
vascular risk factors only. We used MR to investigate the inverse relationship
between WHR and GMV. One valid instrumental variable was available in women only
(rs6905288), which was associated with GMV (p = 0.015). Age and BMI-adjusted
effect estimates from the MR analysis confirmed the inverse association between
GMV and WHR and are in favor of a causal association.
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2013.07.022
PMID: 23998998 [Indexed for MEDLINE]