Epperson C Neill, O'Malley Stephanie, Czarkowski Kathryn A, Gueorguieva Ralitza, Jatlow Peter, Sanacora Gerard, Rothman Douglas L, Krystal John H, Mason Graeme F
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, University Towers Suite 2H, 100 York Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
Biol Psychiatry. 2005 Jan 1;57(1):44-8. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2004.09.021.
Given that nicotine modulates amino acid neurotransmission, we sought to examine the impact of nicotine on cortical gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels in male and female smokers.
Healthy nicotine-dependent men (n = 10) and women (n = 6) underwent proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) to measure occipital cortex GABA concentrations. A subset of the smoking men (n = 5) underwent 1H-MRS scans before and after 48 hours of smoking abstinence, whereas each of the women were scheduled to undergo pre- and postabstinence scans during the follicular and luteal phases of one menstrual cycle. Healthy nonsmoking men (n = 7) and women (n = 13) underwent 1H-MRS for comparison.
Short-term abstinence had no significant effect on cortical GABA concentrations in either men or women. There was, however, a significant effect of sex, diagnosis (smoker/nonsmoker), and menstrual cycle phase on cortical GABA levels, such that female smokers experienced a significant reduction in cortical GABA levels during the follicular phase and no cyclicity in GABA levels across the menstrual cycle, whereas cortical GABA levels were similar in smoking and nonsmoking men.
Taken together with previous 1H-MRS data showing abnormalities in occipital cortex GABA concentrations in several affective disorders, our preliminary finding that nicotine modulation of GABA levels varies by sex provides a further rationale for investigating the impact of nicotine on central GABAergic function as a potential risk factor for women to experience depressive symptoms during smoking cessation.
鉴于尼古丁可调节氨基酸神经传递，我们试图研究尼古丁对男性和女性吸烟者皮质γ-氨基丁酸（GABA）水平的影响。
健康的尼古丁依赖男性（n = 10）和女性（n = 6）接受质子磁共振波谱（1H-MRS）以测量枕叶皮质GABA浓度。一部分吸烟男性（n = 5）在戒烟48小时前后接受1H-MRS扫描，而每位女性则计划在一个月经周期的卵泡期和黄体期接受戒烟前后的扫描。健康的非吸烟男性（n = 7）和女性（n = 13）接受1H-MRS以作比较。
短期戒烟对男性或女性的皮质GABA浓度均无显著影响。然而，性别、诊断（吸烟者/非吸烟者）和月经周期阶段对皮质GABA水平有显著影响，即女性吸烟者在卵泡期皮质GABA水平显著降低，且整个月经周期GABA水平无周期性变化，而吸烟男性和非吸烟男性的皮质GABA水平相似。
结合先前的1H-MRS数据显示几种情感障碍中枕叶皮质GABA浓度异常，我们的初步发现即尼古丁对GABA水平的调节因性别而异，为研究尼古丁对中枢GABA能功能的影响提供了进一步的理论依据，这可能是女性在戒烟期间出现抑郁症状的潜在风险因素。
