IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v10y2019i1d10.1038_s41467-019-11319-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Disentangling molecular alterations from water-content changes in the aging human brain using quantitative MRI

Author

Listed:
  • Shir Filo

    (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

  • Oshrat Shtangel

    (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

  • Noga Salamon

    (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

  • Adi Kol

    (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

  • Batsheva Weisinger

    (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

  • Sagiv Shifman

    (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

  • Aviv A. Mezer

    (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Abstract

It is an open question whether aging-related changes throughout the brain are driven by a common factor or result from several distinct molecular mechanisms. Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (qMRI) provides biophysical parametric measurements allowing for non-invasive mapping of the aging human brain. However, qMRI measurements change in response to both molecular composition and water content. Here, we present a tissue relaxivity approach that disentangles these two tissue components and decodes molecular information from the MRI signal. Our approach enables us to reveal the molecular composition of lipid samples and predict lipidomics measurements of the brain. It produces unique molecular signatures across the brain, which are correlated with specific gene-expression profiles. We uncover region-specific molecular changes associated with brain aging. These changes are independent from other MRI aging markers. Our approach opens the door to a quantitative characterization of the biological sources for aging, that until now was possible only post-mortem.

Suggested Citation

  • Shir Filo & Oshrat Shtangel & Noga Salamon & Adi Kol & Batsheva Weisinger & Sagiv Shifman & Aviv A. Mezer, 2019. "Disentangling molecular alterations from water-content changes in the aging human brain using quantitative MRI," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-16, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-11319-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11319-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-11319-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-019-11319-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shir Filo & Rona Shaharabani & Daniel Bar Hanin & Miriam Adam & Eliel Ben-David & Hanan Schoffman & Nevo Margalit & Naomi Habib & Tal Shahar & Aviv A. Mezer, 2023. "Non-invasive assessment of normal and impaired iron homeostasis in the brain," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-19, December.
    2. Allan Gottschalk & Susanna Scafidi & Thomas J K Toung, 2021. "Brain water as a function of age and weight in normal rats," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(9), pages 1-6, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-11319-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.