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. 2021 Feb 17;13(4):4911-4925.
doi: 10.18632/aging.202673. Epub 2021 Feb 17.

Sex and age-related differences in cerebral blood flow investigated using pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging

Joseph S R Alisch  1 , Nikkita Khattar  1 , Richard W Kim  1 , Luis E Cortina  1 , Abinand C Rejimon  1 , Wenshu Qian  1 , Luigi Ferrucci  2 , Susan M Resnick  3 , Richard G Spencer  1 , Mustapha Bouhrara  1
Affiliations

Sex and age-related differences in cerebral blood flow investigated using pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging

Joseph S R Alisch et al. Aging (Albany NY). .

Abstract

Adequate cerebral blood flow (CBF) is essential to a healthy central nervous system (CNS). Previous work suggests that CBF differs between men and women, and declines with age and certain pathologies, but a highly controlled systematic study across a wide age range, and incorporating white matter (WM) regions, has not been undertaken. Here, we investigate age- and sex-related differences in CBF in gray matter (GM) and WM regions in a cohort (N = 80) of cognitively unimpaired individuals over a wide age range. In agreement with literature, we find that GM regions exhibited lower CBF with age. In contrast, WM regions exhibited higher CBF with age in various cerebral regions. We attribute this new finding to increased oligodendrocyte metabolism to maintain myelin homeostasis in the setting of increased myelin turnover with age. Further, consistent with prior studies, we found that CBF was higher in women than in men in all brain structures investigated. Our work provides new insights into the effects of age and sex on CBF. In addition, our results provide reference CBF values for the standard ASL protocol recommended by the ISMRM Perfusion Study Group and the European ASL in Dementia consortium. Thus, these results provide a foundation for further investigations of CNS perfusion in a variety of settings, including aging, cerebrovascular diseases, and dementias.

Keywords: MRI; aging; arterial spin labeling; cerebral blood flow.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cerebral blood flow (CBF) maps derived from pCASL imaging datasets with or without the NESMA-ASL filter. Corresponding GM and WM masks generated using FSL-FASL are also displayed. Results are shown for fourteen representative male and female participants within each age decade.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Regressions of NESMA-CBF with age and sex shown for the six gray matter (GM) regions investigated. For each structure, the coefficient of determination, R2, and p-value, obtained after FDR correction, are reported. Most regions investigated showed linearly decreasing CBF with age.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Comparison of mean CBF values obtained from NESMA-filtered ASL images for men and women in the indicated GM and WM regions. Mean CBF values for women are overall significantly greater than mean CBF values for men.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Regressions of CBF values obtained from NESMA-filtered ASL images with age and sex shown for the six white matter (WM) regions investigated. For each structure, the coefficient of determination, R2, and p-value, obtained after FDR correction, are reported. Most regions investigated showed linearly increasing CBF with age. This trend is more pronounced for men (blue) as compared to women (red).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Number of participants per age decade and sex within the study cohort.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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