Increased thalamo-cortical functional connectivity in patients with diabetic painful neuropathy: A resting-state functional MRI study

Xiaomei Liu; Xianghong Xu; Cunnan Mao; Peng Zhang; Qing Zhang; Lanlan Jiang; Yuyin Yang; Jianhua Ma; Lei Ye; Kok-Onn Lee; Jindan Wu; Zhijian Yao

doi:10.3892/etm.2021.9940

Increased thalamo-cortical functional connectivity in patients with diabetic painful neuropathy: A resting-state functional MRI study

Exp Ther Med. 2021 May;21(5):509. doi: 10.3892/etm.2021.9940. Epub 2021 Mar 19.

Authors

Xiaomei Liu¹, Xianghong Xu¹, Cunnan Mao¹, Peng Zhang¹, Qing Zhang², Lanlan Jiang¹, Yuyin Yang³, Jianhua Ma¹, Lei Ye⁴, Kok-Onn Lee⁵, Jindan Wu¹, Zhijian Yao³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Endocrinology, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210010, P.R. China.
² Department of Endocrinology, The Affiliated Jiangning Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210000, P.R. China.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Nanjing Brain Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210029, P.R. China.
⁴ National Heart Research Institute Singapore, National Heart Centre Singapore, Singapore 169609, Singapore.
⁵ Department of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119074, Singapore.

Abstract

Functional changes in the brain of patients with painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN) have remained largely elusive. The aim of the present study was to explore changes in thalamo-cortical functional connectivity (FC) of patients with PDN using resting-state functional MRI. A total of 20 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) with non-painful diabetic neuropathy (Group NDN), 19 patients with T2DM with PDN (Group-PDN) and 13 age-, sex- and education-matched healthy controls were recruited. The differences in thalamo-cortical FC among the three groups were compared. Patients in Group PDN had increased FC in the left thalamus, the right angular gyrus and the occipital gyrus as compared to those in Group NDN. Furthermore, patients in Group PDN had increased FC in the right thalamus and angular gyrus as compared to those in Group NDN. In conclusion, the present results suggested that the thalamo-cortical FC is increased in patients with T2DM and PDN. Furthermore, the increased FC in the thalamic-parietal-occipital connectivity may be a central pathophysiological mechanism for PDN. The study was retrospectively registered at ClinicalTrials.gov on 3 October 2018 (identifier no. NCT03700502).

Keywords: diabetes mellitus; functional connectivity; imaging; painful neuropathy; resting-state functional MRI; thalamo-cortical.

Associated data

ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT03700502

Grants and funding

Funding: The present study was supported by grants from the Nanjing Science and Technology Development Project (grant no. 201605027) and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (grant no. BK20170136).