N‐glycome Profile Levels Relate to Silent Brain Infarcts in a Cohort of Hypertensives

BACKGROUND: Silent brain infarcts (SBIs) are highly prevalent in the aged population and relate to the occurrence of further stroke and dementia. Serum N‐glycome levels have been previously associated with aging and they might be related as well to the presence of SBIs and age‐related white matter hyperintensities. METHODS AND RESULTS: We determined the serum N‐glycome profile in a cohort study comprising 972 subjects and evaluated the relationship between N‐glycome levels and the presence and number of SBIs and with age‐related white matter hyperintensities grades, assessed by brain magnetic resonance imaging. Decreasing concentrations of bigalacto core‐α‐1,6‐fucosylated biantennary glycan and increasing concentrations of branching α‐1,3‐fucosylated triantennary glycan remained as independent predictors of SBIs (odds ratio 0.4, 95% CI 0.3–0.7 and odds ratio 1.8, 95% CI 1–3.2, respectively), after controlling for the presence of age and classic vascular risk factors. A similar pattern was found to be related to an increasing number of SBIs and white matter hyperintensities grade. CONCLUSIONS: N‐glycome levels might be potentially useful as biomarkers for the presence of silent cerebrovascular disease.