Reduced fronto-striatal white matter integrity in schizophrenia patients and unaffected siblings: a DTI study.
Reduced fronto-striatal white matter integrity in schizophrenia patients and unaffected siblings: a DTI study.
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DOI：
10.1038/npjschz.2015.1
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发表时间：
2015
影响因子：
5.4
通讯作者：
Vink M
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
de Leeuw M;Bohlken MM;Mandl RC;Kahn RS;Vink M
精神分裂症的特征是额-纹状体网络受损。这些损伤的基础可能是连接额叶和纹状体区域的解剖学通路的中断。然而，这些破坏的具体情况仍不清楚，这些损伤是否与精神分裂症的遗传易感性有关尚不清楚。在这里，我们调查了额纹状体束连接24例精神分裂症患者，30名未受影响的同胞，和58名健康对照使用扩散张量成像。计算连接纹状体与额叶皮质区域（包括背外侧前额叶皮质（DLPFC）、内侧眶额叶皮质和额下回）的神经束的平均各向异性分数（FA）。具体而言，纹状体分为三个亚区（尾状核，壳核，和核神经元）和平均FA计算来自这些纹状体亚区的道。我们发现，当把整个纹状体作为一个种子区域时，患者、兄弟姐妹和对照组的平均FA没有差异。然而，亚区分析显示，与对照组相比，患者（P=0.0003）和同胞（P=0.0008）连接左侧延髓核和左侧DLPFC的束中FA减少。连接左侧延髓核和左侧DLPFC的束中FA减少的结果表明白色完整性可能降低，通常与精神分裂症相关。由于患者和未受影响的兄弟姐妹都显示FA降低，这可能代表精神分裂症的脆弱性因素。
Schizophrenia is characterized by impairments in the fronto–striatal network. Underlying these impairments may be disruptions in anatomical pathways connecting frontal and striatal regions. However, the specifics of these disruptions remain unclear and whether these impairments are related to the genetic vulnerability of schizophrenia is not known. Here, we investigated fronto–striatal tract connections in 24 schizophrenia patients, 30 unaffected siblings, and 58 healthy controls using diffusion tensor imaging. Mean fractional anisotropy (FA) was calculated for tracts connecting the striatum with frontal cortex regions including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), medial orbital frontal cortex, and inferior frontal gyrus. Specifically, the striatum was divided into three subregions (caudate nucleus, putamen, and nucleus accumbens) and mean FA was computed for tracts originating from these striatal subregions. We found no differences between patients, siblings, and controls in mean FA when taking the whole striatum as a seed region. However, subregion analyses showed reduced FA in the tract connecting the left nucleus accumbens and left DLPFC in both patients (P=0.0003) and siblings (P=0.0008) compared with controls. The result of reduced FA in the tract connecting the left nucleus accumbens and left DLPFC indicates a possible reduction of white matter integrity, commonly associated with schizophrenia. As both patients and unaffected siblings show reduced FA, this may represent a vulnerability factor for schizophrenia.