Risterucci Céline, Jeanneau Karine, Schöppenthau Stephanie, Bielser Thomas, Künnecke Basil, von Kienlin Markus, Moreau Jean-Luc
CNS Research, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., PRBD-N, Bldg 72/129, 4070, Basel, Switzerland.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2005 Aug;180(4):724-34. doi: 10.1007/s00213-005-2204-8. Epub 2005 Sep 14.
In schizophrenia research, most of the functional imaging studies have been performed in psychotic patients, but little is known about brain areas involved in the expression of psychotic-like symptoms in animal models. The objective of this study was to visualize and compare brain activity abnormalities in a neurodevelopmental and a pharmacological animal model of schizophrenia.
Blood perfusion of specific brain areas, taken as indirect measure of brain activity, was investigated in adult rats following either neonatal ventral hippocampal lesion or acute administration of phencyclidine. Quantitative perfusion magnetic resonance imaging was performed on five frontal brain slices using the continuous arterial spin labeling technique. The mean perfusion was calculated in several brain structures, which were identified on anatomical images.
Lesioned animals exhibiting deficits in prepulse inhibition of the startle reflex showed a significant blood perfusion increase in the nucleus accumbens, basolateral amygdala, ventral pallidum, entorhinal-piriform cortex, orbital prefrontal cortex, and in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and a decrease of perfusion in the temporal cortex. Similar effects were seen following acute phencyclidine administration in naïve animals.
Our data point out specific cortical and subcortical brain areas involved in the development of psychotic-like symptoms in two different animal models of schizophrenia. The observed brain activity abnormalities are reminiscent of classical neuroimaging findings described in schizophrenic patients.
在精神分裂症研究中，大多数功能成像研究是在精神病患者中进行的，但对于动物模型中类似精神病症状表达所涉及的脑区却知之甚少。本研究的目的是可视化并比较精神分裂症的神经发育和药理学动物模型中的脑活动异常。
在成年大鼠中，通过新生儿腹侧海马损伤或苯环利定急性给药后，研究特定脑区的血液灌注情况，以此作为脑活动的间接测量指标。使用连续动脉自旋标记技术对五个额叶脑切片进行定量灌注磁共振成像。在解剖图像上识别出几个脑结构，并计算其平均灌注量。
在惊吓反射前脉冲抑制方面表现出缺陷的损伤动物，其伏隔核、基底外侧杏仁核、腹侧苍白球、内嗅 - 梨状皮质、眶额前皮质和终纹床核的血液灌注显著增加，颞叶皮质的灌注减少。在未处理的动物中急性给予苯环利定后也观察到类似效果。
我们的数据指出了在两种不同的精神分裂症动物模型中，参与类似精神病症状发展的特定皮质和皮质下脑区。观察到的脑活动异常让人联想到精神分裂症患者中描述的经典神经影像学发现。
