AUTHOR=Cho Jaelim , Seo Seongho , Kim Woo-Ram , Kim Changsoo , Noh Young 

TITLE=Association Between Visceral Fat and Brain Cortical Thickness in the Elderly: A Neuroimaging Study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/aging-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2021.694629

DOI=10.3389/fnagi.2021.694629

ISSN=1663-4365

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Background</title><p>Despite emerging evidence suggesting that visceral fat may play a major role in obesity-induced neurodegeneration, little evidence exists on the association between visceral fat and brain cortical thickness in the elderly.</p></sec><sec><title>Purpose</title><p>We aimed to examine the association between abdominal fat and brain cortical thickness in a Korean elderly population.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>This cross-sectional study included elderly individuals without dementia (<italic>n</italic> = 316). Areas of visceral fat and subcutaneous fat (cm<sup>2</sup>) were estimated from computed tomography scans. Regional cortical thicknesses (mm) were obtained by analyzing brain magnetic resonance images. Given the inverted U-shaped relationship between visceral fat area and global cortical thickness (examined using a generalized additive model), visceral fat area was categorized into quintiles, with the middle quintile being the reference group. A generalized linear model was built to explore brain regions associated with visceral fat. The same approach was used for subcutaneous fat.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>The mean (standard deviation) age was 67.6 (5.0) years. The highest quintile (vs. the middle quintile) group of visceral fat area had reduced cortical thicknesses in the global [β = –0.04 mm, standard error (SE) = 0.02 mm, <italic>p</italic> = 0.004], parietal (β = –0.04 mm, <italic>SE</italic> = 0.02 mm, <italic>p</italic> = 0.01), temporal (β = –0.05 mm, <italic>SE</italic> = 0.02 mm, <italic>p</italic> = 0.002), cingulate (β = –0.06 mm, <italic>SE</italic> = 0.02 mm, <italic>p</italic> = 0.01), and insula lobes (β = –0.06 mm, <italic>SE</italic> = 0.03 mm, <italic>p</italic> = 0.02). None of the regional cortical thicknesses significantly differed between the highest and the middle quintile groups of subcutaneous fat area.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>The findings suggest that a high level of visceral fat, but not subcutaneous fat, is associated with a reduced cortical thickness in the elderly.</p></sec>