Cortical gray matter microstructural alterations in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Medical Science
• Brain Research

Background:

• Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is associated with widespread neurodegeneration.
• Current understanding of gray matter (GM) microstructural alterations in T2DM patients remains incomplete.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate GM microstructural alterations in T2DM patients using advanced neuroimaging techniques.
• To explore the diagnostic potential of specific microstructural metrics in T2DM.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study involving 78 T2DM patients and 74 healthy controls (HCs).
• Utilized diffusion tensor imaging and neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) for GM microstructure assessment.
• Employed surface-based analysis, GM-based spatial statistics (GBSS), and machine learning for data analysis.

Main Results:

• No significant differences in cortical thickness or area between T2DM patients and HCs.
• GBSS revealed decreased fractional anisotropy and increased diffusivity in frontal and parietal lobes of T2DM patients.
• Significantly lower intracellular volume fraction (ICVF) observed in most brain regions of T2DM patients.
• Machine learning model achieved 74% accuracy and 83% AUC for T2DM vs HC classification using ICVF.

Conclusions:

• NODDI can detect early GM neuritic density loss in T2DM, preceding macrostructural changes.
• Cortical ICVF values show promise as diagnostic biomarkers for early GM microstructural alterations in T2DM.