Blood-brain barrier function: The key to successful cognitive aging?

The brain is vulnerable to age-related pathologies, which can result in cognitive decline. Nevertheless, some people age successfully, while others suffer substantially from this cognitive decline. To date, the exact mechanism of cognitive aging remains unclear. A potential initiating mechanism is Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB) breakdown. BBB breakdown can cause a suboptimal environment for neuronal cells and results in several pathological changes, which may eventually lead to neuronal damage and cognitive decline. Most techniques to detect BBB breakdown are not sensitive enough to detect the subtle leakage that characterizes normal aging, so that previous BBB studies did not focus on normal cognitive aging. A promising method to detect subtle BBB leakage in vivo in humans is Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced (DCE) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Recently, we developed a new DCE MRI scan sequence, making our DCE MRI scan sensitive enough to detect subtle globally distributed leakage spots. We will use this innovative DCE MRI scan in a successfully aging sample. We have been allowed access to the MAastricht Aging Study (MAAS) database to collect our sample, which provides the unique opportunity of having a sample with cognitive pre-measurements already conducted from 1993 to 2005. We will use this information to investigate the association between BBB leakage and cognitive decline over the past 23 years and the association between BBB leakage and radiologically visible brain tissue abnormalities.

Blood-brain barrier leakage is associated with cognitive decline and brain abnormalities during aging.

Two sessions with one week between sessions

Participants will be subjected to blood sampling, neuropsychological assessment (approximately 60 minutes with five cognitive tests) and MRI scanning (approximately 60 minutes).