White matter tracts that overlap with the thalamus and the putamen are protected against multiple sclerosis pathology.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The thalamus and the putamen are highly connected hubs implicated in multiple sclerosis (MS) pathology. It remains unclear if white matter (WM) tracts, which pass through them, have a different susceptibility to MS pathology, and if so, if their impact on disability predominates over that exerted by disease in other WM tracts. We hypothesized that WM tracts connected to and passing through these hubs (subsequently termed hub+ tracts) would be more susceptible to MS-related pathology than tracts that do not pass through them (hub- tracts) due to retrograde and anterograde distant degeneration. Thus, we compared the lesion load and neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) derived metrics between hub+ and hub- tracts and assessed the relationship between t

SUBMITTER: Clarke MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10703593 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature