HAI Book 2025 - Flipbook - Page 609
Tennant, Victoria
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Relationship between metabolic syndrome biomarkers and regional
tau accumulation in cognitively unimpaired older adults
Victoria R. Tennant1, Danielle Luu1, Maxwell W. Hand1, Noelle N. Lee1, Arthur W. Toga1, Sid E.
O9Bryant3, Kristine Yaffe2, Meredith N. Braskie1
1
Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, US
Department of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Epidemiology and Biostatistics University of California San Francisco,
San Francisco, CA, US
3
Institute for Translational Research University of North Texas Health Science Center, Forth Worth, TX, US
2
Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is associated with an increased risk of type-II diabetes, stroke, cognitive
decline, and dementia in late-life. However, the relationship between specific MetS biomarkers and tau deposition
remains unclear.
Methods: We assessed 833 cognitively unimpaired older adults from the Health and Aging Brain Study-Health
Disparities (Table 1). Linear regression models were run to assess the effect of specific MetS biomarkers on mean
18
F-PI-2620 tau standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR) in the medial temporal (MTL), posterior cingulate (PCC),
and lateral parietal (LP) regions of interest using the inferior cerebellar gray matter of the posterior cerebellum as
the reference region. We then stratified models into non-Hispanic Black (NHB), non-Hispanic White (NHW), and
Hispanic subgroups.
Results: In the whole group, higher A´-SUVR was associated with more tau in all regions and higher abdominal
circumference and triglycerides were associated with more tau in the PCC and LP with a significant ethnoracial
group by abdominal circumference interaction on tau. Higher HDL cholesterol was associated with more PCC tau.
In the NHB subgroup, higher A´-SUVR was associated with more MTL and LP tau, while higher abdominal
circumference and triglycerides were associated with more LP and PCC tau. In the NHW and Hispanic subgroups,
higher A´-SUVR was associated with more tau in all regions. In the NHW subgroup, lower abdominal
circumference was associated with more tau in the MTL. In the Hispanic subgroup, higher abdominal
circumference was associated with more PCC and LP tau and higher triglycerides and HDL cholesterol were
associated with greater PCC tau (Tables 2-3).
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that specific MetS biomarkers may relate differently to tau deposition across
ethnoracial subgroups, particularly in the PCC and LP where higher abdominal circumference was related to more
tau in Hispanic and NHB, but not in NHW older adults.
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