Plasma carotenoids and medial temporal lobe atrophy in older adults

Background & aims Carotenoids are vegetable pigments with neuroprotective properties. Clinical studies found efficacy of specific carotenoids on improving brain perfusion and functioning aging. However, evidence an effect neurodegeneration, which may require longer follow-up period to observe, is more limited. Leveraging biomarkers from a large population-based cohort study older adults, we investigated whether blood were associated atrophy the medial temporal lobe (a biomarker neurodegeneration in aging) over 10 years. Methods This included 461 dementia-free participants Three-City Bordeaux (aged ?65) who had plasma measured at baseline up three repeated imaging exams subsequent Results In adjusted linear mixed models, each increase 1 SD level total ?-carotene was 0.02 cm3 (95% CI, 0.001–0.04; P = 0.04) 0.01–0.04; 0.008) smaller volume loss per year, respectively. Conclusions Our results based unique long-term prospective evaluation neuroimaging suggest beneficial role for prevention age-related neurodegeneration.