Associations between brain phenotypes and temporomandibular disorders: An integrative multi-omics investigation.

Authors

Yang Jiang, Yiping Wang, Yan Huang, Xiaobo Chen, Jiaoxiang Shen, Yihui Lin, Zhisheng Zhang

Published in

Cranio : the journal of craniomandibular practice. Pages 1-12. Sep 12, 2026. Epub Sep 12, 2026.

Abstract

We proposed that overlooked neuropathological mechanisms involving brain phenotypes play a critical role in the pathogenesis of temporomandibular disorders (TMD).
We employed an integrative multi-omics approach combining bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) - a genetic method to infer causal relationships - applied to 3,935 brain imaging-derived phenotypes, transcriptomic analysis (examining gene activity) of a TMD rodent model, and cell-type-specific MR using single-cell expression quantitative trait loci.
Bidirectional MR identified 85 putatively causal brain phenotypes for TMD, predominantly white matter tracts (50/85). Transcriptomics yielded 197 medullary and 22 trigeminal differentially expressed genes. Cell-type MR implicated C1S in excitatory neurons and ARHGAP45 in microglia as risk genes.
This study supports the role of brain phenotypes in TMD neuropathology, suggesting a neural (medulla-trigeminal) pathway, and provides preliminary evidence for potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

PMID:
42731980
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 13 Sep 2026.

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