Brain network topological changes in inflammatory bowel disease: an exploratory study.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Gastroenterology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), involve complex interactions between genetics and environmental factors leading to intestinal dysbiosis and chronic inflammation.
• Chronic inflammation in IBD can affect systemic functions, including large-scale brain network organization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate inflammation-related changes in brain topology in IBD patients, irrespective of their clinical subtype (UC or CD).
• To determine if observed brain topological alterations are dependent on the specific clinical form of IBD or the underlying inflammatory process.

Main Methods:

• Magnetoencephalography (MEG) signals were analyzed from 25 IBD patients and 28 healthy controls (HC).
• Source-reconstructed MEG data were used to evaluate brain topology, focusing on metrics like betweenness centrality (BC) in the gamma frequency band.

Main Results:

• IBD patients exhibited higher betweenness centrality (BC) in the left hippocampus compared to healthy controls, indicating altered information flow within the brain network.
• Statistically significant differences in brain topology were observed between UC patients and HC, and between CD patients and HC.
• No significant differences in brain topology were found between the UC and CD clinical forms, suggesting the changes are inflammation-driven.

Conclusions:

• Inflammation associated with IBD significantly alters brain network topology, specifically affecting the left hippocampus's role in information processing.
• These topological brain changes are a consequence of the inflammatory process in IBD, rather than being specific to ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease.
• Future research incorporating inflammatory markers and metabolomic analyses is recommended to monitor brain involvement in IBD and understand its clinical implications.