Serum lipidome associates with neuroimaging features in patients with traumatic brain injury
Ilias Thomas,
Virginia F.J. Newcombe,
Alex M. Dickens,
Sophie Richter,
Jussi P. Posti,
Andrew I.R. Maas,
Olli Tenovuo,
Tuulia Hyötyläinen,
András Büki,
David K. Menon,
Matej Orešič
Affiliations
Ilias Thomas
School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden; School of Information and Engineering, Dalarna University, 79131 Falun, Sweden
Virginia F.J. Newcombe
Division of Anaesthesia, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Alex M. Dickens
Turku Bioscience Centre, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland; Department of Chemistry, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
Sophie Richter
Division of Anaesthesia, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Jussi P. Posti
Neurocenter, Department of Neurosurgery and Turku Brain Injury Center, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Turku, Finland
Andrew I.R. Maas
Department of Neurosurgery, Antwerp University Hospital and University of Antwerp, Edegem, Belgium
Olli Tenovuo
Neurocenter, Department of Neurology and Turku Brain Injury Center, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Turku, Finland
Tuulia Hyötyläinen
School of Science and Technology, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden
András Büki
School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden
David K. Menon
Division of Anaesthesia, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Corresponding author
Matej Orešič
School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden; Turku Bioscience Centre, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland; Corresponding author
Summary: Acute traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with substantial abnormalities in lipid biology, including changes in the structural lipids that are present in the myelin in the brain. We investigated the relationship between traumatic microstructural changes in white matter from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and quantitative lipidomic changes from blood serum. The study cohort included 103 patients from the Collaborative European NeuroTrauma Effectiveness Research in TBI (CENTER-TBI) study. Diffusion tensor fitting generated fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) maps for the MRI scans while ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry was applied to analyze the lipidome. Increasing severity of TBI was associated with higher MD and lower FA values, which scaled with different lipidomic signatures. There appears to be consistent patterns of lipid changes associating with the specific microstructure changes in the CNS white matter, but also regional specificity, suggesting that blood-based lipidomics may provide an insight into the underlying pathophysiology of TBI.
