Association between hypothalamic Alzheimer's disease pathology and body mass index: The Hisayama study

Abstract

The hypothalamus is the region of the brain that integrates the neuroendocrine system and whole-body metabolism. Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been reported to exhibit pathological changes in the hypothalamus, such as neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) and amyloid plaques (APs). However, few studies have investigated whether hypothalamic AD pathology is associated with clinical factors. We investigated the association between AD-related pathological changes in the hypothalamus and clinical pictures using autopsied brain samples obtained from deceased residents of a Japanese community. A total of 85 autopsied brain samples were semi-quantitatively analyzed for AD pathology, including NFTs and APs. Our histopathological studies showed that several hypothalamic nuclei, such as the tuberomammillary nucleus (TBM) and lateral hypothalamic area (LHA), are vulnerable to AD pathologies. NFTs are observed in various neuropathological states, including normal cognitive cases, whereas APs are predominantly observed in AD. Regarding the association between hypothalamic AD pathologies and clinical factors, the degree of APs in the TBM and LHA was associated with a lower body mass index while alive, after adjusting for sex and age at death. However, we found no significant association between hypothalamic AD pathology and the prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, or dyslipidemia. Our study showed that a lower BMI, which is a poor prognostic factor of AD, might be associated with hypothalamic AP pathology and highlighted new insights regarding the disruption of the brain–whole body axis in AD.