title: Recovery of brain structural abnormalities in morbidly obese patients after bariatric surgery.
abstract: Obesity-related brain structural abnormalities have been reported extensively, and bariatric surgery (BS) is currently the most effective intervention to produce sustained weight reduction in overtly obese (OB) people. It is unknown whether BS can repair the brain circuitry abnormalities concomitantly with long-term weight loss.
  
  
  
  In order to investigate whether BS promotes neuroplastic structural recovery in morbidly OB patients, we quantified fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD) and gray (GM) and white (WM) matter densities in 15 morbidly OB patients and in 18 normal weight (NW) individuals. OB patients were studied at baseline and also 1 month after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy surgery.
  
  
  
  Two-sample t-test between OB (baseline) and NW groups showed decreased FA values, GM/WM densities and increased MD value in brain regions associated with food intake control (that is, caudate, orbitofrontal cortex, body and genu of corpus callosum) and cognitive-emotion regulation (that is, inferior frontal gyrus, hippocampus, insula, external capsule) (P<0.05, family-wise error correction). Paired t-test in the OB group between before and after surgery showed that BS generated partial neuroplastic structural recovery in the OB group, but the differences had relative less strength and smaller volume (P<0.001).
  
  
  
  This study provides the first anatomical evidence for BS-induced acute neuroplastic recovery that might in part mediate the long-term benefit of BS in weight reduction. It also highlights the importance of this line of gut-brain axis research employing the combined BS and neuroimaging model for identifying longitudinal changes in brain structure that correlated with obesity status.
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Imaging, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, China.|Department of Psychiatry and McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Xijing Gastrointestinal Hospital, the Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Imaging, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Imaging, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.|Malcom Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Gainesville, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Y E
authors.initials: YE
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Imaging, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Imaging, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tangdu Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tangdu Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Xijing Hospital, the Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Xijing Gastrointestinal Hospital, the Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Xijing Gastrointestinal Hospital, the Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Xijing Gastrointestinal Hospital, the Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Gold
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Imaging, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, China.|Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neuroimaging, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tomasi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.|Department of Biomedical Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Xijing Gastrointestinal Hospital, the Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nie
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neuroimaging, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: G-J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D050110:Bariatric Surgery; D002681:China; D003071:Cognition; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000473:pathology*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D004644:Emotions; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000473:pathology*; D059906:Neuroimaging; D009767:Obesity, Morbid / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D011184:Postoperative Period; D015431:Weight Loss / Q000502:physiology