Due to population aging, the increasing prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias are major public health concerns. Dietary consumption of antioxidant nutrients, in particular the carotenoid β-carotene, has been associated with less age-related neurocognitive decline. What is unclear, however, is the extent to which antioxidant nutrients may exert neuroprotective effects through their influence on established indicators of age-related changes in brain tissue. This study thus tested associations of circulating β-carotene and other nutrients with a structural neuroimaging indicator of brain age derived from cross-validated machine learning models trained to predict chronological age from brain tissue morphology in independent cohorts.
Methods:
Midlife adults (N = 132, aged 30.4 to 50.8 y, 59 female at birth) underwent a structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol and fasting phlebotomy to assess plasma concentrations of β-carotene, retinol, γ-tocopherol, α-tocopherol, and β-cryptoxanthin.
Results:
In regression analyses adjusting for chronological age, sex at birth, smoking status, MRI image quality, season of testing, annual income, and education, greater circulating levels of β-carotene were associated with a lower (ie, younger) predicted brain age (β = -0.23, 95% CI = -0.40 to -0.07, p = .006). Other nutrients were not statistically associated with brain age, and results persisted after additional covariate control for body mass index, cortical volume, and cortical thickness.
Conclusions:
These cross-sectional findings are consistent with the possibility that dietary intake of β-carotene may be associated with slower biological aging at the level of the brain, as reflected by a neuroimaging indicator of brain age.