AUTHOR=Srisaikaew Patcharaporn , Chad Jordan A. , Mahakkanukrauh Pasuk , Anderson Nicole D. , Chen J. Jean TITLE=Effect of sex on the APOE4-aging interaction in the white matter microstructure of cognitively normal older adults using diffusion-tensor MRI with orthogonal-tensor decomposition (DT-DOME) JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroscience VOLUME=17 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2023.1049609 DOI=10.3389/fnins.2023.1049609 ISSN=1662-453X ABSTRACT=

The influence of the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele (APOE4) on brain microstructure of cognitively normal older adults remains incompletely understood, in part due to heterogeneity within study populations. In this study, we examined white-matter microstructural integrity in cognitively normal older adults as a function of APOE4 carrier status using conventional diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) and the novel orthogonal-tensor decomposition (DT-DOME), accounting for the effects of age and sex. Age associations with white-matter microstructure did not significantly depend on APOE4 status, but did differ between sexes, emphasizing the importance of accounting for sex differences in APOE research. Moreover, we found the DT-DOME to be more sensitive than conventional DTI metrics to such age-related and sex effects, especially in crossing WM fiber regions, and suggest their use in further investigation of white matter microstructure across the life span in health and disease.