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Investigating obesity-associated brain inflammation using quantitative water content mapping.

Stephanie Kullmann1,2,3, Zaheer Abbas4,5, Jürgen Machann1,2,6

  • 1Institute for Diabetes Research and Metabolic Diseases of the Helmholtz Center Munich at the University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.

Journal of Neuroendocrinology
|October 7, 2020
PubMed
Summary

Obesity is linked to brain inflammation, detectable via quantitative MRI. Specific brain regions show increased water content in obese individuals, potentially due to inflammation and visceral fat.

Keywords:
cerebral oedemahypothalamusinflammationobesityquantitative MRI

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroimaging
  • Obesity Research
  • Metabolic Syndrome

Background:

  • Obesity is increasingly linked to brain inflammation, a potential driver of its pathogenesis.
  • Detecting in vivo brain inflammation in humans is challenging.
  • Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (qMRI) offers reproducible measures for brain pathologies.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate associations between brain water content and obesity metrics using qMRI.
  • To explore the relationship between brain water content, body fat distribution, and metabolism.
  • To assess if qMRI can detect obesity-related brain changes.

Main Methods:

  • 115 participants (normal weight to obese) underwent 3 Tesla MRI for cerebral water content mapping.
  • Associations between brain water content and anthropometric/metabolic measures were analyzed.
  • Visceral adipose tissue and metabolic syndrome status were assessed in subgroups.

Main Results:

  • No global brain water content changes were linked to obesity.
  • Higher BMI correlated with increased water content in the cerebellum, limbic lobe, and specific subcortical regions (striatum, hypothalamus, thalamus, fornix).
  • Visceral adipose tissue was the strongest link between higher brain water content and obesity; metabolic syndrome showed elevated water content in the hypothalamus and fornix.

Conclusions:

  • qMRI detected significant, localized brain water content changes in obese individuals, suggesting chronic low-grade inflammation.
  • These changes, particularly in the hypothalamus, may relate to obesity-associated insulin resistance.
  • Further longitudinal studies are needed to determine if brain inflammation causes or results from obesity.