Longitudinal changes in late-life brain health after prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine

IF 4.5 2区医学 Q1 NEUROIMAGING

NeuroImage Pub Date : 2025-10-02 DOI:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121505

A Boots , A Schrantee , B E Padrela , A M Wiegersma , J S Damoiseaux , H J M M Mutsaerts , L Lorenzini , T J Roseboom , S R de Rooij

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

The consequences of harmful prenatal exposures for brain health may last a lifetime. Previous studies showed smaller adult brain volumes and altered perfusion at age 68 after prenatal famine exposure, particularly in men. To investigate whether the previously observed effects reflect persistent developmental effects or accelerated brain aging, we here studied longitudinal changes in brain volumes, white matter integrity, white matter hyperintensities and perfusion between ages 68 and 74 in individuals exposed and unexposed to famine in early gestation.

Method

Brain MRI scans were obtained at age 68 (n = 118; 41 exposed to famine in early gestation) and 74 (n = 81; 25 exposed) in participants of the Dutch famine birth cohort (total n = 129, longitudinal n = 70; 23 exposed). We assessed longitudinal change in brain volumes (T1w), white matter hyperintensities (FLAIR), white matter integrity (DTI) and cerebral blood flow (ASL) between those exposed in early gestation and those unexposed (born before or conceived after the famine).

Results

In longitudinal models, aging-related changes were observed between ages 68 and 74. We observed significantly smaller brain volumes in exposed compared to unexposed men, and alterations in cerebral blood flow in both exposed men and women compared to unexposed individuals. We observed no group differences in rate of brain health changes over time.

Conclusions

Our results support prenatal famine exposure affecting brain structure and perfusion across the lifespan. The absence of group differences in rate of change over time supports a hypothesis of persistent developmental effects rather than accelerated brain aging after prenatal famine exposure.

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产前暴露于荷兰饥荒后晚年大脑健康的纵向变化。

背景：有害的产前暴露对大脑健康的影响可能持续一生。先前的研究表明，在产前暴露于饥荒后，68岁成人的脑容量变小，血流灌注改变，尤其是男性。为了研究先前观察到的影响是否反映了持续的发育影响或加速的脑衰老，我们在这里研究了68岁至74岁的早期妊娠暴露和未暴露于饥荒的个体的脑容量、白质完整性、白质高强度和灌注的纵向变化。方法：对荷兰饥荒出生队列参与者（总n=129，纵向n=70, 23暴露）在68岁（118人，41人在妊娠早期暴露于饥荒）和74岁（81人，25人暴露于饥荒）时进行脑MRI扫描。我们评估了早期妊娠暴露者和未暴露者（饥荒前出生或饥荒后怀孕）之间脑容量（T1w）、白质高强度（FLAIR）、白质完整性（DTI）和脑血流量（ASL）的纵向变化。结果：在纵向模型中，在68 - 74岁之间观察到衰老相关的变化。我们观察到，与未暴露者相比，暴露者的脑容量明显较小，与未暴露者相比，暴露者的男女脑血流量都发生了变化。随着时间的推移，我们没有观察到大脑健康变化率的组间差异。结论：我们的研究结果支持产前饥荒暴露影响整个生命周期的大脑结构和灌注。随着时间的推移，各组之间的变化率差异的缺失支持了一种假设，即持续的发育影响，而不是产前饥荒暴露后加速的大脑衰老。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

NeuroImage 医学-核医学

CiteScore

11.30

自引率

10.50%

发文量

809

审稿时长

63 days

期刊介绍： NeuroImage, a Journal of Brain Function provides a vehicle for communicating important advances in acquiring, analyzing, and modelling neuroimaging data and in applying these techniques to the study of structure-function and brain-behavior relationships. Though the emphasis is on the macroscopic level of human brain organization, meso-and microscopic neuroimaging across all species will be considered if informative for understanding the aforementioned relationships.