Association of 25-hydroxyvitamin D status with brain volume changes

Vitamin D is critical to brain function and its deficiency accelerates cognitive impairment. There is limited understanding of the brain-specific areas that undergo volume change in relation to blood vitamin D levels. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentration and structural changes in the brain. We analyzed structural three-dimensional T1 MRI images of 201 elderly individuals (mean age = 74.91 ± 9.21 years; 68.1% female; mean 25(OH)D = 18.05 nmol/L), with 10 community-based normal healthy subjects, 33 with subjective cognitive decline, 97 with mild cognitive impairment, and 61 with Alzheimer's disease (AD). To analyze the structural changes in the brain respective to blood 25(OH)D, multiple regression analyses were performed using voxel-based morphometry with age and total intracranial volume as covariates. Lower 25(OH)D level were associated with reduced brain volume in right olfactory, rectus GM regions (FWE-corr, p < .05) for entire subjects. For AD subjects, left parahippocampal, fusiform, and hippocampal areas were positively associated with 25(OH)D (FWE-corr, p < .05). Low blood 25(OH)D was associated with reduced volumes in olfactory and hippocampal regions in elderly patients with cognitive decline. Our results may provide insight into the neurological pathophysiology of vitamin D.