GDF15 and Brain atrophy: Several studies in humans have found an association between high circulating levels of GDF15 and the risk of dementia, cerebrovascular disease, cognitive impairment, and brain atrophy, which are clinical features of many neurodegenerative diseases (Fuchs et al., 2013; Chai et al., 2016; Jiang et al., 2016; Nasrabady et al., 2018).