ArticleAlzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association2025
Plasma proteomic analysis of intermuscular fat links muscle integrity with processing speed in older adults.
Article in Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Age-related change in skeletal muscle strength, size, and adiposity over 18 years in Caribbean men.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Mapping sex-specific associations of adiposity with age-related cognitive decline and multimodal Alzheimer's pathology.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Spatial transcriptomics maps distinct signatures of human intermuscular adipose expansion in mice.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Plasma proteomic analysis of intermuscular fat links muscle integrity with processing speed in older adults.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Value of Conventional Ultrasound Combined with Shear Wave Elastography for Sarcopenia in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease.Clinical interventions in aging · 2025Article
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16 authors.
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Abstract
introductionMore intermuscular fat (IMF) has been associated with lower cognitive performance through mechanisms that are not fully elucidated.
methodsThe associations of 7628 plasma proteins with IMF were assessed in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging (n = 941, mean age = 66.7 ± 15.2) and validated in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study (n = 2451, mean age = 50.2 ± 3.6). Processing speed was assessed by Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST). Associations between the main exposures, outcome, and mediators were evaluated using linear regression, and mediating effects were assessed by causal mediation analysis.
resultsThere were 722 plasma proteins associated with IMF in both the discovery and replication cohorts (false discovery rate [FDR] adjusted p ≤ 0.05). Of these, 26 mediated the relationship between IMF and DSST, with effects ranging from 2.8% to 20.9% (p ≤ 0.05). These proteins represented synaptic function and organization, and growth factor binding (FDR adjusted p ≤ 0.05). DISCUSSION: Reducing IMF may improve processing speed through effects on growth factor and synaptic activity. HIGHLIGHTS: Higher intermuscular fat is associated with lower processing speed, consistently across populations that represent different demographic characteristics. There is a robust plasma proteomic profile of intermuscular fat that is assessed in the abdominal and thigh skeletal muscle. The proteins associated with intermuscular fat reflect signals that are reflective of synaptic function and organization, as well as other molecular pathways such as growth factor binding. Circulating proteins partially explain the association between higher intermuscular fat and lower processing speed, suggesting that higher intermuscular fat effects processing speed through pathways including synaptic functions and growth factor binding.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.