ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell Dev. Biol.
Sec. Molecular and Cellular Pathology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcell.2025.1590627
This article is part of the Research TopicArtificial Intelligence Applications in Chronic Ocular Diseases, Volume IIView all 24 articles
Genetic mechanisms of hemispheric functional connectivity in diabetic retinopathy: a joint neuroimaging and transcriptomic study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Jiangxi Provincial People's Hospital, Nanchang, China
- 2Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: DR represents a major cause of global vision loss; however, the genetic basis of functional homotopy ， a critical neurobiological metric reflecting interhemispheric functional synchronization，remains largely unexplored. Emerging evidence suggests that DR patients exhibiting aberrant VMHC may potentially associate with distinct transcriptional profiles. These findings could provide novel mechanistic insights into the neuropathological substrates underlying DR-related visual and cognitive dysfunction. Methods: Resting-state fMRI data from 46 DR patients and 43 HCs were analyzed to compute VMHC for assessing interhemispheric functional connectivity. Spatial transcriptomic-neuroimaging associations were examined using AHBA, revealing genes significantly correlated with VMHC alterations. Subsequent analyses included functional enrichment assessment and PPI network construction. Results: DR patients demonstrated significantly lower VMHC in bilateral LING, PoCG, and PreCG versus controls, indicating impaired interhemispheric connec tivity in visual-sensorimotor networks. VMHC variations spatially correlated wit h 4,000 genes (2,000 positive/negative each), enriched in transcriptional regulati Diabetic retinopathy (DR) stands as the primary cause of global vision impairment. Functional homotopy, characterized by substantial synchronization of spontaneous activity and concurrent activation of geometrically corresponding interhemispheric areas, acts as a valuable indicator for evaluating the intrinsic functional organization of the brain. Nevertheless, the genetic foundation of functional homotopy remains largely uncharted. This study aims to explore the genetic mechanisms at play in the aberrations of Voxel-Mirrored Homotopic Connectivity (VMHC) observed in individuals with DR.
Keywords: Dr, resting-state functional MRI (RS-fMRI), AHBA, Gene Expression, functional homotopy, Voxel-Mirrored Homotopic Connectivity (VMHC)
Received: 10 Mar 2025; Accepted: 22 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Huang, He and Wan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Song Wan, Jiangxi Provincial People's Hospital, Nanchang, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.