Dataset Information

Alcohol exposure in utero is associated with decreased gray matter volume in neonates.

ABSTRACT: Neuroimaging studies have indicated that prenatal alcohol exposure is associated with alterations in the structure of specific brain regions. However, the temporal specificity of such changes and their behavioral consequences are less known. Here we explore the brain structure of infants with in utero exposure to alcohol shortly after birth. T2 structural MRI images were acquired from 28 alcohol-exposed infants and 45 demographically matched healthy controls at 2-4 weeks of age on a 3T Siemens Allegra system as part of large birth cohort study, the Drakenstein Child Health Study (DCHS). Neonatal neurobehavior was assessed at this visit; early developmental outcome assessed on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development III at 6 months of age. Volumes of gray matter regions were estimated based on the segmentations of the University of North Carolina neonatal atlas. Significantly decreased total gray matter volume was demonstrated for the alcohol-exposed cohort compared to healthy control infants (p < 0.001). Subcortical gray matter regions that were significantly different between groups after correcting for overall gray matter volume included left hippocampus, bilateral amygdala and left thalamus (p < 0.01). These findings persisted even when correcting for infant age, gender, ethnicity and maternal smoking status. Both early neurobehavioral and developmental adverse outcomes at 6 months across multiple domains were significantly associated with regional volumes primarily in the temporal and frontal lobes in infants with prenatal alcohol exposure. Alcohol exposure during the prenatal period has potentially enduring neurobiological consequences for exposed children. These findings suggest the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on brain growth is present very early in the first year of life, a period during which the most rapid growth and maturation occurs.

SUBMITTER: Donald KA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6556617 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Alcohol exposure in utero is associated with decreased gray matter volume in neonates.

Donald Kirsten A KA Fouche J P JP Roos Annerine A Koen Nastassja N Howells Fleur M FM Riley Edward P EP Woods Roger P RP Zar Heather J HJ Narr Katherine L KL Stein Dan J DJ

Metabolic brain disease 20151129 1

Neuroimaging studies have indicated that prenatal alcohol exposure is associated with alterations in the structure of specific brain regions. However, the temporal specificity of such changes and their behavioral consequences are less known. Here we explore the brain structure of infants with in utero exposure to alcohol shortly after birth. T2 structural MRI images were acquired from 28 alcohol-exposed infants and 45 demographically matched healthy controls at 2-4 weeks of age on a 3T Siemens A ...[more]

PMID: 26616173

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Project description:Obesity is a risk factor for cognitive decline and gray matter volume loss in aging. Studies have shown that different metabolic factors, e.g., dysregulated glucose metabolism and systemic inflammation, might mediate this association. Yet, even though these risk factors tend to co-occur, they have mostly been investigated separately, making it difficult to establish their joint contribution to gray matter volume structure in aging. Here, we therefore aimed to determine a metabolic profile of obesity that takes into account different anthropometric and metabolic measures to explain differences in gray matter volume in aging. We included 748 elderly, cognitively healthy participants (age range: 60 - 79 years, BMI range: 17 - 42 kg/m2) of the LIFE-Adult Study. All participants had complete information on body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, glycated hemoglobin, total blood cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, adiponectin and leptin. Voxelwise gray matter volume was extracted from T1-weighted images acquired on a 3T Siemens MRI scanner. We used partial least squares correlation to extract latent variables with maximal covariance between anthropometric, metabolic and gray matter volume and applied permutation/bootstrapping and cross-validation to test significance and reliability of the result. We further explored the association of the latent variables with cognitive performance. Permutation tests and cross-validation indicated that the first pair of latent variables was significant and reliable. The metabolic profile was driven by negative contributions from body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, glycated hemoglobin, C-reactive protein and leptin and a positive contribution from adiponectin. It positively covaried with gray matter volume in temporal, frontal and occipital lobe as well as subcortical regions and cerebellum. This result shows that a metabolic profile characterized by high body fat, visceral adiposity and systemic inflammation is associated with reduced gray matter volume and potentially reduced executive function in older adults. We observed the highest contributions for body weight and fat mass, which indicates that factors underlying sustained energy imbalance, like sedentary lifestyle or intake of energy-dense food, might be important determinants of gray matter structure in aging.

Project description:BackgroundDespite decades of research, there is continued uncertainty regarding whether autism is associated with a specific profile of gray matter (GM) structure. This inconsistency may stem from the widespread use of voxel-based morphometry (VBM) methods that combine indices of GM density and GM volume. If GM density or volume, but not both, prove different in autism, the traditional VBM approach of combining the two indices may obscure the difference. The present study measures GM density and volume separately to examine whether autism is associated with alterations in GM volume, density, or both.MethodsDifferences in MRI-based GM density and volume were examined in 6-25 year-olds with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (n = 213, 80.8% male, IQ 47-154) and a typically developing (TD) sample (n = 190, 71.6% male, IQ 67-155). High-resolution T1-weighted anatomical images were collected on a single MRI scanner. Regional density and volume were estimated via whole-brain parcellation comprised of 1625 parcels. Parcel-wise analyses were conducted using generalized additive models while controlling the false discovery rate (FDR, q < 0.05). Volume differences in the 68-region Desikan-Killiany atlas derived from Freesurfer were also examined, to establish the generalizability of findings across methods.ResultsNo density differences were observed between the autistic and TD groups, either in individual parcels or whole brain mean density. Increased volume was observed in autism compared to the TD group when controlling for Age, Sex, and IQ, both at the level of the whole brain (total volume) and in 45 parcels (2.8% of total parcels). Parcels with greater volume included inferior, middle, and superior temporal gyrus, inferior and superior frontal gyrus, precuneus, and fusiform gyrus. Converging evidence from a standard Freesurfer pipeline also identified greater volume in a number of overlapping regions.LimitationsThe method for determining "density" is not a direct measure of neuronal density, and this study cannot reveal underlying cellular differences. While this study represents possibly the largest single-site sample of its kind, it is underpowered to detect very small differences.ConclusionsThese results provide compelling evidence that autism is associated with regional GM volumetric differences, which are more prominent than density differences. This underscores the importance of examining volume and density separately, and suggests that direct measures of volume (e.g. region-of-interest or tensor-based morphometry approaches) may be more sensitive to autism-relevant differences in neuroanatomy than concentration/density-based approaches.

Dataset Information

Alcohol exposure in utero is associated with decreased gray matter volume in neonates.

Publications

Alcohol exposure in utero is associated with decreased gray matter volume in neonates.

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