Association between APOE e4 and white matter hyperintensity volume, but not total brain volume or white matter integrity

• DOI: 10.1007/s11682-019-00069-9
• Publication Date: 2019-03-22T12:02:57Z
• Authors: Donald M. Lyall; Simon R. Cox; Laura M. Lyall; Carlos Celis-Morales; Breda Cullen; Daniel F. Mackay; Joey Ward; Rona J. Strawbridge; Andrew M. McIntosh; Naveed Sattar; Daniel J. Smith; Jonathan Cavanagh; Ian J. Deary; Jill P. Pell
• Keywords: Apolipoprotein E

Apolipoprotein (APOE) e4 genotype is an accepted risk factor for accelerated cognitive aging and dementia, though its neurostructural substrates are unclear. The deleterious effects of this on brain structure may increase in magnitude into older age. This study aimed to investigate UK Biobank the association between APOE allele presence vs. absence imaging variables that have been associated with worse abilities; whether varies by cross-sectional We used magnetic resonance (MRI) genetic data from a general-population cohort: (N = 8395 after exclusions). adjusted covariates age years, sex, Townsend social deprivation scores, smoking history cardiometabolic diseases. There was statistically significant increased (i.e. worse) white matter (WM) hyperintensity volumes (standardised beta 0.088, 95% confidence intervals 0.036 0.139, P 0.001), marker poorer cerebrovascular health. were no associations left or right hippocampal, total grey (GM) WM volumes, tract integrity indexed fractional anisotropy (FA) mean diffusivity (MD). interactions Future research utilising intermediate phenotypes longitudinal hold promise area, particularly pertaining e4's potential link contributions aging.