Differential Associations of IL-4 With Hippocampal Subfields in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease

Virginia Boccardi; Eric Westman; Luca Pelini; Olof Lindberg; J-Sebastian Muehlboeck; Andrew Simmons; Roberto Tarducci; Piero Floridi; Pietro Chiarini; Hilkka Soininen; Iwona Kloszewska; Magda Tsolaki; Bruno Vellas; Christian Spenger; Lars-Olof Wahlund; Simon Lovestone; Patrizia Mecocci

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2018.00439

Differential Associations of IL-4 With Hippocampal Subfields in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease

Front Aging Neurosci. 2019 Jan 17:10:439. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2018.00439. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Virginia Boccardi¹, Eric Westman², Luca Pelini¹, Olof Lindberg², J-Sebastian Muehlboeck², Andrew Simmons³, Roberto Tarducci⁴, Piero Floridi⁵, Pietro Chiarini⁵, Hilkka Soininen⁶, Iwona Kloszewska⁷, Magda Tsolaki⁸, Bruno Vellas⁹, Christian Spenger¹⁰, Lars-Olof Wahlund², Simon Lovestone¹¹, Patrizia Mecocci¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine, Institute of Gerontology and Geriatrics, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
² Division of Clinical Geriatrics, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
³ Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
⁴ Division of Medical Physics, Perugia University Hospital, Perugia, Italy.
⁵ Division of Neuroradiology, Perugia University Hospital, Perugia, Italy.
⁶ Department of Neurology, University of Eastern Finland - Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland.
⁷ Department of Old Age Psychiatry and Psychotic Disorders, Medical University of Łódź, Łódź, Poland.
⁸ 3rd Department of Neurology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
⁹ University of Toulouse, INSERM 1027, Gérontopôle, Toulouse, France.
¹⁰ Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
¹¹ Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Background/Aims: We aimed to assess the association between in volumetric measures of hippocampal sub-regions - in healthy older controls (HC), subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD- with circulating levels of IL-4. Methods: From AddNeuroMed Project 113 HC, 101 stable MCI (sMCI), 22 converter MCI (cMCI) and 119 AD were included. Hippocampal subfield volumes were analyzed using Freesurfer 6.0.0 on high-resolution sagittal 3D-T1W MP-RAGE acquisitions. Plasmatic IL-4 was measured using ELISA assay. Results: IL-4 was found to be (a) positively associate with left subiculum volume (β = 0.226, p = 0.037) in sMCI and (b) negatively associate with left subiculum volume (β = -0.253, p = 0.011) and left presubiculum volume (β = -0.257, p = 0.011) in AD. Conclusion: Our results indicate a potential neuroprotective effect of IL-4 on the areas of the hippocampus more vulnerable to aging and neurodegeneration.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; aging; inflammation; inflammatory markers; mild cognitive impairment.