2 days Ago By UT Southwestern Medical Center
DALLAS – Jan. 02, 2025 – High-density lipoprotein (HDL), or “good” cholesterol, may play a vital role in conserving healthy brain matter in middle-aged adults, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report. The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine , could give doctors and patients more insight into factors that affect cognitive health in aging adults.
“Our study has identified a novel role of HDL cholesterol function in maintaining gray matter volume in the brain, which is important for cognitive function in middle-aged adults,” said the study’s first author, John Giacona, Ph.D., PA-C , Assistant Professor of Applied Clinical Research and Internal Medicine in the School of Health Professions at UT Southwestern.
“Our study was the first to investigate for a potential link between HDL function and brain volume.” To determine whether there was a link, the researchers assessed 1,826 participants between the ages of 35 and 70 enrolled in the multiethnic, population-based Dallas Heart Study, a longitudinal study now in its 25th year. First, fasting lipoprotein concentrations were assessed using nuclear magnetic resonance.
Participants were then tested for cognitive function, and their brain matter volume was measured using brain magnetic resonance imaging. Initial assessments took place between 2000 and 2002, and participants were reassessed between 2007 and 2009. Anand Rohatgi, M.
D. , Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Cardiology , and his team at UTSW’s Clinical Heart and Vascular Center measured HDL function in this study. Their findings revealed that higher concentrations of small-particle HDL, but not larger particles or total HDL concentration, were linked with greater gray matter volume and higher cognitive capacity.
“Previous research has shown conflicting evidence regarding the concentration of HDL cholesterol in development of dementia or brain atrophy,” said senior author Wanpen Vongpatanasin, M.D. , Professor of Internal Medicine and Director of the Hypertension Section in the Division of Cardiology at UTSW.
“However, the concentration of HDL cholesterol may not reflect their function.” HDL decreases the amount of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or “bad” cholesterol, in blood vessels by transporting the excess to the liver, where it gets broken down. “In addition, HDL particles exist in many sizes, which may be linked to their function,” Dr.
Vongpatanasin said. “We now need to understand exactly how the small HDL particle, which can cross the blood-brain barrier, may have a beneficial role in maintaining brain health.” This finding led the researchers to note that HDL cholesterol function or levels of small HDL particles may be used as markers for a population at risk of developing cognitive decline, though additional studies would be required to confirm the connection.
Drs. Giacona and Vongpatanasin credit UTSW’s multidisciplinary collaboration for the study’s success. “Our unified focus on heart and brain health fosters multidisciplinary collaboration among the Cardiology, Neurology , and Advanced Imaging Research Center departments,” said Dr.
Giacona, who is also a certified Hypertension Specialist at the Clinical Heart and Vascular Center as a member of the Hypertension Section. He said this research “has extended the potential beneficial role of HDL cholesterol efflux function to the brain.” Cholesterol efflux is the ability of HDL to “scoop up” cholesterol particles from plaques in the heart’s blood vessels and move those particles to the liver for disposal.
Other UTSW researchers who contributed to this study are Jijia Wang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Applied Clinical Research in the School of Health Professions; Rong Zhang, Ph.
D., Professor of Neurology, Biomedical Engineering , and Internal Medicine; Brendan Kelley, M.D.
, Professor and Vice Chair for Clinical Operations of Neurology; Ihab Hajjar, M.D., Professor of Neurology and Internal Medicine; Binu Thomas, Ph.
D., Assistant Professor in the Advanced Imaging Research Center and of Radiology ; Fang Yu, M.D.
, Assistant Professor of Radiology and in the Advanced Imaging Research Center; and James de Lemos, M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine and Chief of the Division of Cardiology.
Drs. Thomas and Zhang are Investigators in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute , and Drs.
Kelley and Yu are members of the O'Donnell Brain Institute. The Dallas Heart Study received funding from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (UL1TR001105).
The study was also supported by Clinical Research grant R01 AG057571, the O’Brien Kidney Center at UTSW, and the Charles and Jane Pak Center for Mineral Metabolism and Clinical Research at UTSW, of which Dr. Vongpatanasin is a member. About UT Southwestern Medical Center UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education.
The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 25 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 24 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 14 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of more than 3,200 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in more than 80 specialties to more than 120,000 hospitalized patients, more than 360,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5 million outpatient visits a year.
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