Associations Between Glucose Metabolism Measures and Amyloid-β and Tau Load on PET 14 Years Later: Findings From the Framingham Heart Study

What is it about?

Type 2 diabetes in midlife has been associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Yet, whether midlife glucose regulation is also associated with underlying pathology of AD, as measured by accumulation of amyloid and tau proteins in the brain, remains unclear. Therefore, we assessed whether measures of blood glucose, blood insulin, and insulin resistance, all markers of diabetes type 2, were associated with amyloid and tau measures on PET brain scans 14 years later. We found that elevated blood glucose was associated with more future tau proteins in the brain. These findings suggest that impaired blood glucose regulation is associated with increased tau pathology in later life, independent from amyloid pathology. As both proteins typically occur together in AD, this might suggest that different patterns of brain pathology exist in persons with impaired blood glucose (such as diabetes), and AD.

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