Effect of serum concentrations of IL-6 and TNF-α on brain structure in anorexia nervosa: a combined cross-sectional and longitudinal study

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Abstract

Previous studies of brain structure in anorexia nervosa (AN) have reported reduced gray matter in underweight patients, which largely normalizes upon weight gain. One underlying biological mechanism may be glial cell alterations related to low-grade inflammation. Here, we investigated relationships between brain structure as measured by magnetic resonance imaging and serum concentrations of two pro-inflammatory cytokines (interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha) cross-sectionally in 82 underweight adolescent and young adult female patients (mean age 16.8 years; 59 of whom were observed longitudinally after short-term weight restoration; mean duration 2.8 months), 20 individuals long-term weight-recovered from AN (mean age 22.7 years) and 105 healthy control (HC) participants (mean age 17.2 years). We measured cortical thickness, subcortical volumes and local gyrification index, a measure of cortical folding. In contrast to most previous studies of cytokine concentrations in AN, we found no cross-sectional group differences (interleukin-6: p = 0.193, tumor necrosis factor alpha: p = 0.057) or longitudinal changes following weight restoration (interleukin-6: p = 0.201, tumor necrosis factor alpha: p = 0.772). As expected, widespread gray matter reductions (cortical thickness, subcortical volumes, cortical folding) were observed in underweight patients with AN compared to HC. However, we found no evidence of associations between cytokine concentrations and structural brain measures in any participant group. Furthermore, longitudinal changes in cytokine concentrations were unrelated to changes in gray matter. In conclusion, we did not identify any association between (sub-)inflammatory processes and structural brain changes in AN. Future studies are needed to elucidate which other factors besides nutritional status may contribute to brain morphological alterations.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1509-1517
Number of pages9
JournalNeuropsychopharmacology
Volume49
Issue number10
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2024
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 38461330
ORCID /0000-0003-2132-4445/work/172572171
ORCID /0000-0002-2864-5578/work/172572203
ORCID /0000-0001-7803-1972/work/172572277
ORCID /0000-0001-8029-8270/work/172572573
ORCID /0000-0001-8333-867X/work/172572585
ORCID /0000-0002-6152-5834/work/172572616
ORCID /0000-0002-5112-405X/work/172572704

Keywords

Sustainable Development Goals