TY - JOUR
T1 - The heritability of brain metabolites on proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in older individuals
AU - Batouli, Seyed Amir Hossein
AU - Sachdev, Perminder S.
AU - Wen, Wei
AU - Wright, Margaret J.
AU - Suo, Chao
AU - Ames, David
AU - Trollor, Julian N.
PY - 2012/8/1
Y1 - 2012/8/1
N2 - Twin studies have shown that many aspects of brain structure are heritable, suggesting a strong genetic contribution to brain structure. Less is known about functional aspects of the brain, in particular biologically relevant metabolites in the brain such as those measured by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ( 1H MRS), N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA), creatine (Cr), choline (Cho) and myoinositol (ml), which have been suggested as possible markers of brain aging and early dementia. We examined 296 (56 male/108 female monozygotic and 43 male/89 female dizygotic) older twins (mean age 72.2±5.5years, range 65-88), for the levels of these metabolites relative to the H 2O signal in the posterior cingulate cortex using 1H MRS. All metabolites showed substantial heritability, which was greatest for the neuronal integrity marker NAA (72%), and less so for the others - Cr (51%), Cho (33%) and ml (55%). The heritability of these markers did not change significantly with age or sex. The genetic determination of NAA, along with the evidence that NAA levels change in aging and neurodegenerative diseases suggest that it is a potential endophenotype of brain aging and dementia.
AB - Twin studies have shown that many aspects of brain structure are heritable, suggesting a strong genetic contribution to brain structure. Less is known about functional aspects of the brain, in particular biologically relevant metabolites in the brain such as those measured by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ( 1H MRS), N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA), creatine (Cr), choline (Cho) and myoinositol (ml), which have been suggested as possible markers of brain aging and early dementia. We examined 296 (56 male/108 female monozygotic and 43 male/89 female dizygotic) older twins (mean age 72.2±5.5years, range 65-88), for the levels of these metabolites relative to the H 2O signal in the posterior cingulate cortex using 1H MRS. All metabolites showed substantial heritability, which was greatest for the neuronal integrity marker NAA (72%), and less so for the others - Cr (51%), Cho (33%) and ml (55%). The heritability of these markers did not change significantly with age or sex. The genetic determination of NAA, along with the evidence that NAA levels change in aging and neurodegenerative diseases suggest that it is a potential endophenotype of brain aging and dementia.
KW - Aging
KW - Dementia
KW - Heritability
KW - Magnetic resonance spectroscopy
KW - N-Acetyl-Aspartate
KW - Twin study
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84861616804&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.04.043
DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.04.043
M3 - Article
C2 - 22561359
AN - SCOPUS:84861616804
SN - 1053-8119
VL - 62
SP - 281
EP - 289
JO - NeuroImage
JF - NeuroImage
IS - 1
ER -