ArticleAging cell2026
Frailty and Brain Myelin Across Adulthood: Multimodal MRI Insights From the BLSA.
Article in Aging cell, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Frailty is a state of reduced physiological resilience and increased vulnerability to adverse health outcomes, but its neurobiological mechanisms across the adult lifespan remain unclear. Emerging evidence suggests that white matter (WM) alterations may accompany frailty, but previous neuroimaging studies have focused mostly on older adults and used nonspecific MRI markers. This study investigates whether systemic frailty, quantified using a Frailty Index (FI), is associated with WM myelin content and integrity using advanced quantitative MRI. A total of 88 participants (aged 22-94 years, mean = 59.9 ± 20.0) from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging underwent multicomponent relaxometry MRI to measure myelin content, as well as relaxation rates R1 and R2 to probe white matter overall integrity. Multiple linear regression models examined the relationship between FI and whole-brain and regional MRI biomarkers, adjusting for age and sex. Principal component analysis was used to explore global patterns of myelin and microstructural variation. Higher frailty scores were significantly associated with lower MWF across nearly all WM regions, especially in long-range tracts such as the corona radiata and corpus callosum. R1 and R2 also showed inverse associations with FI, suggesting broader white matter vulnerability. These findings provide the initial evidence linking frailty to brain myelin alterations across the adult lifespan. The study highlights myelin degradation as a candidate neural substrate of frailty and underscores the importance of advanced quantitative MRI in detecting early brain vulnerability related to frailty. Further research is needed to clarify the causal relationship between frailty and myelin changes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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 OpenQuestion graph.