| Literature DB >> 36147452 |
Stephanie S G Brown1, Katherine E Manning1, Paul Fletcher1, Anthony Holland1.
Abstract
Prader-Willi syndrome is a genetic neurodevelopmental disorder with an early phenotype characterized by neonatal hypotonia, failure to thrive, and immature genitalia. The onset of hyperphagia in childhood and developmental, physical and neuropsychiatric characteristics indicate atypical brain development and specifically hypothalamic dysfunction. Whether the latter is a consequence of disruption of hypothalamic pathways for genetic reasons or due to a failure of hypothalamic development remains uncertain. Twenty participants with Prader-Willi syndrome, 40 age-matched controls and 42 obese participants underwent structural MRI scanning. The whole hypothalamus and its subnuclei were segmented from structural acquisitions. The Food-Related Problem Questionnaire was used to provide information relating to eating behaviour. All hypothalamic nuclei were significantly smaller in the Prader-Willi group, compared with age and gender matched controls (P < 0.01) with the exception of the right anterior-inferior nucleus (P = 0.07). Lower whole hypothalamus volume was significantly associated with higher body mass index in Prader-Willi syndrome (P < 0.05). Increased preoccupation with food was associated with lower volumes of the bilateral posterior nuclei and left tubular superior nucleus. The whole hypothalamus and all constituent nuclei were also smaller in Prader-Willi syndrome compared with obese participants (P < 0.001). Connectivity profiles of the hypothalamus revealed that fractional anisotropy was associated with impaired satiety in Prader-Willi syndrome (P < 0.05). We establish that hypothalamic structure is significantly altered in Prader-Willi syndrome, demonstrating that hypothalamic dysfunction linked to eating behaviour is likely neurodevelopmental in nature and furthermore, distinctive compared with obesity in the general population.Entities:
Keywords: Prader–Willi; hyperphagia; hypothalamus; obesity; structural MRI
Year: 2022 PMID: 36147452 PMCID: PMC9487704 DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcac229
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Brain Commun ISSN: 2632-1297
Figure 1Hypothalamic segmentation. (A) Coronal and sagittal slices of the whole hypothalamic segmentation overlaid on the T1-weighted image. (B) Two axial slices of the whole hypothalamic segmentation, overlaid on the T1-weighted image. (C) Individual hypothalamic nuclei segmentations.
Participant demographics
| PWS mean | PWS SD | Control mean | Control SD | Obese mean | Obese SD | PWS-control | PWS-obese | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age (years) | 23.1 | 2.3 | 22.8 | 2.2 | 30.4 | 6.1 |
| *** |
| IQ | 63.1 | 11.9 | 112.9 | 11.3 | *** | |||
| BMI | 30.8 | 7.2 | 24.1 | 3.8 | 31.0 | 5.0 | *** |
|
| FRPQ Preoccupation | 12.3 | 3.9 | ||||||
| FRPQ Impaired satiety | 22.6 | 4.4 | ||||||
| FRPQ negative behaviour | 25.7 | 10.3 | ||||||
| FRPQ total | 62.2 | 14.6 |
Means, standard deviations (SD) and t-test P-value results of participant demographics for PWS, non-obese and obese control groups (* = P < 0.05, ** = P < 0.01, *** = P < 0.001).
IQ, intelligence quotient; BMI, body mass index; FRPQ, Food-Related Problems Questionnaire.
Neuroimaging between group results
| PWS mean | PWS SD | Control mean | Control SD | Obese mean | Obese SD | PWS-control | PWS-obese | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hypothalamic nuclei volumes (mm3) | ||||||||
| Left anterior–inferior | 15.98 | 4.43 | 18.79 | 3.87 | 19.12 | 4.51 | * | ** |
| Left anterior–superior | 20.89 | 4.67 | 26.28 | 4.35 | 24.84 | 4.51 | *** | ** |
| Left posterior | 101.84 | 23.63 | 122.71 | 16.78 | 116.95 | 17.46 | *** | ** |
| Left tubular inferior | 111.97 | 20.88 | 131.31 | 14.66 | 149.40 | 18.03 | *** | *** |
| Left tubular superior | 100.87 | 22.25 | 113.72 | 14.72 | 119.72 | 13.93 | ** | *** |
| Left whole | 351.57 | 63.04 | 412.83 | 39.92 | 430.05 | 44.25 | *** | *** |
| Right anterior–inferior | 14.10 | 5.01 | 15.92 | 2.92 | 16.75 | 3.78 |
| * |
| Right anterior–superior | 21.98 | 5.99 | 26.37 | 4.16 | 25.32 | 4.86 | ** | * |
| Right posterior | 98.12 | 17.11 | 113.58 | 15.66 | 120.41 | 17.04 | *** | *** |
| Right tubular inferior | 111.71 | 17.97 | 125.82 | 13.88 | 135.77 | 16.59 | ** | *** |
| Right tubular superior | 109.25 | 23.16 | 123.97 | 17.02 | 123.98 | 14.55 | ** | ** |
| Right whole | 355.57 | 51.95 | 405.67 | 40.13 | 422.24 | 44.05 | *** | *** |
| Hypothalamic–cortical connectivity | ||||||||
| Connection density | 3795.6 | 2514.75 | 3849.3 | 1933.1 |
| |||
| Axial diffusivity | 0.00152 | 0.00012 | 0.00149 | 0.00022 |
| |||
| Fractional anisotropy | 0.32381 | 0.02712 | 0.32381 | 0.08256 |
| |||
| Mean diffusivity | 0.00115 | 0.00008 | 0.00114 | 0.00022 |
| |||
| Radial diffusivity | 0.00096 | 0.00007 | 0.00096 | 0.00023 |
| |||
Means, standard deviations (SD) and t-test P-value results of structural neuroimaging data (* = P < 0.05, ** = P < 0.01, *** = P < 0.001).
Hypothalamic volume between group results normalized to intracranial volume (percentage value)
| PWS mean | PWS SD | Control mean | Control SD | Obese mean | Obese SD | PWS-control | PWS-obese | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hypothalamic nuclei volumes | ||||||||
| Left anterior–inferior | 0.0010 | 0.0003 | 0.0012 | 0.0003 | 0.0013 | 0.0002 | * | *** |
| Left anterior–superior | 0.0014 | 0.0003 | 0.0017 | 0.0004 | 0.0017 | 0.0003 | *** | *** |
| Left posterior | 0.0066 | 0.0016 | 0.0082 | 0.0018 | 0.0079 | 0.0008 | ** | *** |
| Left tubular inferior | 0.0072 | 0.0016 | 0.0088 | 0.0022 | 0.0102 | 0.0009 | ** | *** |
| Left tubular superior | 0.0065 | 0.0015 | 0.0075 | 0.0016 | 0.0081 | 0.0007 | * | *** |
| Left whole | 0.0228 | 0.0048 | 0.0270 | 0.0058 | 0.0292 | 0.0018 | ** | *** |
| Right anterior–inferior | 0.0009 | 0.0003 | 0.0010 | 0.0004 | 0.0011 | 0.0002 |
| ** |
| Right anterior–superior | 0.0014 | 0.0004 | 0.0017 | 0.0005 | 0.0017 | 0.0003 | ** | *** |
| Right posterior | 0.0063 | 0.0013 | 0.0075 | 0.0017 | 0.0082 | 0.0010 | ** | *** |
| Right tubular inferior | 0.0071 | 0.0012 | 0.0084 | 0.0017 | 0.0092 | 0.0009 | * | *** |
| Right tubular superior | 0.0070 | 0.0015 | 0.0082 | 0.0021 | 0.0084 | 0.0007 | ** | *** |
| Right whole | 0.0228 | 0.0039 | 0.0270 | 0.0058 | 0.0287 | 0.0020 | ** | *** |
Means, standard deviations (SD) and t-test P-value results of hypothalamic volumes as normalized* to intracranial volume (ICV) (*hypothalamic volume as a percentage of ICV); (* = P < 0.05, ** = P < 0.01, *** = P < 0.001).
Figure 2Volumetric analysis of the hypothalamus. (A) Mean whole hypothalamic volumes for the PWS, obese and non-obese control groups (Parametric t-testing results, PWS n = 20, Controls n = 40, Obese n = 42; *** = P < 0.001). (B) BMI measurements are significantly associated with the left and right hypothalamic volumes in the PWS group (left: P < 0.05, R2 = 0.3724, right: P < 0.05, R2 = 0.2108). (C) Food-Related Problem Questionnaire (FRPQ) measures of preoccupation with food are significantly associated with volume of the bilateral posterior and left tubular superior hypothalamic nuclei in PWS (left posterior: P < 0.05, R2 = 0.2262, right posterior: P < 0.05, R2 = 0.2181, left tubular superior: P < 0.05, R2 = 0.2144).
Figure 3Hypothalamic white matter connectivity. (A) Coronal brain slice showing tractography seeded in the hypothalamus. (B) Sagittal brain slice showing tractography seeded in the hypothalamus. (C and D) Coronal and sagittal sliced brain volumes showing the hypothalamic connectivity profile extending rostrally to the basal forebrain and prefrontal cortical areas, caudally to the cerebellar cortex and close-range connectivity with the thalamus and upper brainstem. Colours represent directionality of tracts. (E) Impaired satiety score exhibts a positive correlative relationshipwith fractional anisotropy derived from hypothalamic sturctural connectivity.