Schedule of Events | Symposia

Age and sex-related blood-brain barrier function differences in treatment-resistant depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder

Poster Session D - Monday, March 31, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Indira Summerville¹ (ins4004@med.cornell.edu), Claire Ho¹, Jolin Chou¹, Megan E. Chang¹, Megan Johnson¹, Nicola Manfredi¹, Hayley Seltzberg¹, Lindsay Victoria¹, Conor Liston¹, Eric Goldwaser¹; ¹Weill Cornell Medicine

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a critical aspect of the cerebrovascular system and has been implicated in psychiatric disorders. Previous studies show that neurovascular BBB water exchange rates (kw) decline with age and is accelerated in males compared to females of an otherwise healthy cohort. Further, this decline has been shown to predict impairments in working memory and other executive function tasks related to Alzheimer’s disease. Preclinical evidence suggests that BBB dysfunction may drive pathophysiologic mechanisms of serious mental illnesses. Here we investigate age and sex-related trajectories in BBB kw among participants with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Diffusion-prepared arterial spin label (DP-ASL) MRI was used to measure BBB function (kw) in subjects with depression and OCD (n=91; 18-75 years old). We specifically investigated kw differences in three age groups: 18-35 (n=34), 36-55 (n=44), and 56-75 (n=13). Results showed lower kw among males overall (t=-1.99, p=0.05). Within the 18-35 age group, males exhibited lower average whole-brain kw compared to females (male kw=120.3; female kw=130.5; t=-2.15; p=0.04). However, these differences were not found in the 36-55 age group (t=-1.44, p=0.16), or 56-75 age group (t=0.44, p=0.67). Preliminary results showed that with increasing age, there were trending decreases in kw among males and females. These results support the hypothesis that age- and sex-differences in BBB function trajectory exist in our cohort of depression and OCD. Future work will examine how these differences in cerebrovascular function contribute to symptom trajectory and may predict clinical and cognitive impairment across the lifespan.

Topic Area: METHODS: Neuroimaging