Association of aortic stiffness with biomarkers of neuroinflammation, synaptic dysfunction, and neurodegeneration

Objectives: To test the hypothesis that increased aortic stiffening is associated with greater cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) evidence of core Alzheimer’s disease pathology (Ab, phosphorylated tau (p-tau)), neurodegeneration (total tau (t-tau)), synaptic dysfunction (neurogranin), neuroaxonal injury (neurofilament light (NFL)), and neuroinflammation (YKL-40, sTREM2), we analyzed pulse wave velocity (PWV) data and CSF data among older adults.

Methods: Participants free of stroke and dementia from the Vanderbilt Memory and Aging Project, an observational community-based study, underwent cardiac magnetic resonance to assess aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV, m/sec) and lumbar puncture to obtain CSF. Linear regressions related aortic PWV to CSF Ab, p-tau, t-tau, neurogranin, NFL, YKL-40, and sTREM2 concentrations adjusting for age, race/ethnicity, education, apolipoprotein (APOE) e4 status, Framingham Stroke Risk Profile, and cognitive diagnosis. Models were repeated testing PWV interactions wi...