Male and female are not the same: a multicenter study of static and dynamic functional connectivity in relapse-remitting multiple sclerosis in China

作者全名："Wang, Yao; Duan, Yunyun; Wu, Yuling; Zhuo, Zhizheng; Zhang, Ningnannan; Han, Xuemei; Zeng, Chun; Chen, Xiaoya; Huang, Muhua; Zhu, Yanyan; Li, Haiqing; Cao, Guanmei; Sun, Jie; Li, Yongmei; Zhou, Fuqing; Li, Yuxin"

作者地址："[Wang, Yao; Wu, Yuling; Huang, Muhua; Zhu, Yanyan; Zhou, Fuqing] Nanchang Univ, Affiliated Hosp 1, Dept Radiol, Nanchang, Jiangxi, Peoples R China; [Wang, Yao; Wu, Yuling; Huang, Muhua; Zhu, Yanyan; Zhou, Fuqing] Clin Res Ctr Med Imaging Jiangxi Prov, Nanchang, Jiangxi, Peoples R China; [Duan, Yunyun; Zhuo, Zhizheng; Cao, Guanmei] Capital Med Univ, Beijing Tiantan Hosp, Dept Radiol, Beijing, Peoples R China; [Zhang, Ningnannan; Sun, Jie] Tianjin Med Univ Gen Hosp, Dept Radiol, Tianjin, Peoples R China; [Zhang, Ningnannan; Sun, Jie] Tianjin Med Univ Gen Hosp, Tianjin Key Lab Funct Imaging, Tianjin, Peoples R China; [Han, Xuemei] Jilin Univ, Dept Neurol, China Japan Union Hosp, Changchun, Jilin, Peoples R China; [Zeng, Chun; Chen, Xiaoya; Li, Yongmei] Chongqing Med Univ, Dept Radiol, Affiliated Hosp 1, Chongqing, Peoples R China; [Li, Haiqing; Li, Yuxin] Fudan Univ, Huashan Hosp, Dept Radiol, Shanghai, Peoples R China"

通信作者："Zhou, FQ (通讯作者)，Nanchang Univ, Affiliated Hosp 1, Dept Radiol, Nanchang, Jiangxi, Peoples R China.; Zhou, FQ (通讯作者)，Clin Res Ctr Med Imaging Jiangxi Prov, Nanchang, Jiangxi, Peoples R China.; Li, YX (通讯作者)，Fudan Univ, Huashan Hosp, Dept Radiol, Shanghai, Peoples R China."

来源：FRONTIERS IN IMMUNOLOGY

ESI学科分类：IMMUNOLOGY

WOS号：WOS:001090828200001

JCR分区：Q1

影响因子：7.3

年份：2023

卷号：14

期号：　

开始页：　

结束页：　

文献类型：Article

关键词：relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis; magnetic resonance imaging; sex; independent component analysis; static functional network connectivity; dynamic functional network connectivity

摘要："Background: Sex-related effects have been observed in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), but their impact on functional networks remains unclear.Objective: To investigate the sex-related differences in connectivity strength and time variability within large-scale networks in RRMS.Methods: This is a multi-center retrospective study. A total of 208 RRMS patients (135 females; 37.55 +/- 11.47 years old) and 228 healthy controls (123 females; 36.94 +/- 12.17 years old) were included. All participants underwent clinical and MRI assessments. Independent component analysis was used to extract resting-state networks (RSNs). We assessed the connectivity strength using spatial maps (SMs) and static functional network connectivity (sFNC), evaluated temporal properties and dynamic functional network connectivity (dFNC) patterns of RSNs using dFNC, and investigated their associations with structural damage or clinical variables.Results: For static connectivity, only male RRMS patients displayed decreased SMs in the attention network and reduced sFNC between the sensorimotor network and visual or frontoparietal networks compared with healthy controls [P<0.05, false discovery rate (FDR) corrected]. For dynamic connectivity, three recurring states were identified for all participants: State 1 (sparse connected state; 42%), State 2 (middle-high connected state; 36%), and State 3 (high connected state; 16%). dFNC analyses suggested that altered temporal properties and dFNC patterns only occurred in females: female patients showed a higher fractional time (P<0.001) and more dwell time in State 1 (P<0.001) with higher transitions (P=0.004) compared with healthy females. Receiver operating characteristic curves revealed that the fraction time and mean dwell time of State 1 could significantly distinguish female patients from controls (area under the curve: 0.838-0.896). In addition, female patients with RRMS also mainly showed decreased dFNC in all states, particularly within cognitive networks such as the default mode, frontoparietal, and visual networks compared with healthy females (P < 0.05, FDR corrected).Conclusion: Our results observed alterations in connectivity strength only in male patients and time variability in female patients, suggesting that sex-related effects may play an important role in the functional impairment and reorganization of RRMS."

基金机构：The study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number: 81771808). [81771808]; National Natural Science Foundation of China

基金资助正文：The authors thank the other local centers for the support in data collection.r The study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number: 81771808).