Associations between morphometric similarity network and brain gene expression in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Abstract

Abnormal functional and structural connectivity of brain networks is commonly observed in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and accompanied bycognitive impairment. In this study, we revealed differences in brain structure in T2DM using a Morphometric Similarity Network (MSN) method, which quantifies structural similarities between brain regions. The associations between T2DM-associated changes in morphometric similarity (MS) and gene expression were analyzed to explore the molecular and cellular mechanism underlying MS changes in T2DM. Our research involved 3D-T1WI and DTI data from 157 T2DM patients and 147 healthy controls (HCs) adequately matched. In patients with T2DM, the global MS was decreased. The MS decreased in the regions within the left sensorimotor network and the right salience/ventral attention network and increased in the regions within the bilateral visual network in the patient group. The increased MS of the bilateral visual networks in T2DM patients was negatively correlated with memory function. The transcription-neuroimaging association analysis indicated that the expression of 298 genes was significantly spatially correlated with the T2DM-related MSN abnormalities, and some of these genes are involved in biological processes such as central nervous system development and neurotransmitter transmission, which may provide possible molecular and cellular substrates for MS abnormalities and cognitive decline in T2DM.