Associations between cerebrospinal fluid total phosphatidylcholines, neurodegeneration, cognitive decline, and risk of mild cognitive impairment in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging.

Abstract It is unclear whether cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) phosphatidylcholines (PCs) are associated with neuroimaging measures of amyloid deposition and neurodegeneration (glucose metabolism, cortical thickness, and hippocampal volume), cognitive decline, or risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) among cognitively unimpaired older adults. This study investigated the associations of 19 individual CSF PC concentrations and their total sum with cross-sectional and longitudinal measures of amyloid deposition and neurodegeneration, global and domain-specific cognitive z-scores, and risk of MCI among 655 cognitively unimpaired participants, mean age of 71 years, enrolled in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging. Neither the CSF total PC concentration nor individual CSF PCs were cross-sectionally or longitudinally associated with neuroimaging measures, cognition, or risk of MCI.