Pannacciulli Nicola, Del Parigi Angelo, Chen Kewei, Le Duc Son N T, Reiman Eric M, Tataranni Pietro A
Obesity and Diabetes Clinical Research Section, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Phoenix, AZ 85016, USA.
Neuroimage. 2006 Jul 15;31(4):1419-25. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.01.047. Epub 2006 Mar 20.
Obesity is accompanied by damage to several tissues. Overweight is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Whether structural abnormalities associated with excess body fat may also occur in the brain is unknown. We sought to determine to what extent excess body fat is associated with regional alterations in brain structure using voxel-based morphometry (VBM), a whole-brain unbiased technique based upon high-definition 3D magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans normalized into a common standard space and allowing for an objective assessment of neuroanatomical differences throughout the brain. We studied 24 obese (11 male, 13 female; age: 32 +/- 8 years; body mass index [BMI]: 39.4 +/- 4.7 kg/m2) and 36 lean (25 male, 11 female; mean age: 33 +/- 9 years; BMI: 22.7 +/- 2.2 kg/m2) non-diabetic Caucasians. In comparison with the group of lean subjects, the group of obese individuals had significantly lower gray matter density in the post-central gyrus, frontal operculum, putamen, and middle frontal gyrus (P < 0.01 after adjustment for sex, age, handedness, global tissue density, and multiple comparisons). BMI was negatively associated with GM density of the left post-central gyrus in obese but not lean subjects. This study identified structural brain differences in human obesity in several brain areas previously involved in the regulation of taste, reward, and behavioral control. These alterations may either precede obesity, representing a neural marker of increased propensity to gaining weight, or occur as a consequence of obesity, indicating that also the brain is affected by increased adiposity.
肥胖会伴随多个组织的损伤。超重是阿尔茨海默病和其他神经退行性疾病的一个风险因素。与过多体脂相关的结构异常是否也会出现在大脑中尚不清楚。我们试图使用基于体素的形态测量法（VBM）来确定过多体脂在多大程度上与脑结构的区域改变相关，VBM是一种基于高清3D磁共振成像（MRI）扫描并归一化到一个共同标准空间的全脑无偏技术，能够客观评估整个大脑的神经解剖差异。我们研究了24名肥胖（11名男性，13名女性；年龄：32±8岁；体重指数[BMI]：39.4±4.7kg/m²）和36名瘦（25名男性，11名女性；平均年龄：33±9岁；BMI：22.7±2.2kg/m²）的非糖尿病白种人。与瘦人组相比，肥胖个体组在中央后回、额下回、壳核和额中回的灰质密度显著降低（在对性别、年龄、利手、整体组织密度和多重比较进行校正后，P<0.01）。在肥胖但非瘦的受试者中，BMI与左侧中央后回的灰质密度呈负相关。这项研究在先前参与味觉、奖赏和行为控制调节的几个脑区中发现了人类肥胖中的脑结构差异。这些改变可能在肥胖之前就已出现，代表着体重增加倾向增加的神经标志物，或者是肥胖的结果，表明大脑也受到肥胖增加的影响。
