Neurochemistry Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
World J Biol Psychiatry. 2010 Mar;11(2 Pt 2):314-20. doi: 10.3109/15622970802123695.
A growing body of literature suggests persistent and selective structural changes in the cortico-limbic-thalamic-striatal system in patients with recurrent depressive disorder (DD). Oxidative stress is thought to play a key role in these processes. So far, the main scientific focus has been on antioxidant enzymes in this context. For the first time, this proof of concept study examines the activity of the free radicals producing the enzyme, xanthine oxidase (XO), directly in the cortico-limbic-thalamic-striatal system of patients with recurrent depression. The activity of XO was ascertained in the cortico-limbic-thalamic-striatal regions in post-mortem brain tissue of patients with recurrent depressive episodes and individuals without any neurological or psychiatric history (7/7). We measured the XO activity in following brain areas: hippocampus, regio entorhinalis, thalamus, putamen and caudate nucleus. In this study, we report a significant increase of XO activity in the thalamus and the putamen of patients with depression. Our findings contribute to the growing body of evidence suggesting that oxidative stress plays a pivotal role in certain brain areas in recurrent depressive disorder.
越来越多的文献表明，复发性抑郁障碍（DD）患者的皮质-边缘-丘脑-纹状体系统存在持续和选择性的结构变化。氧化应激被认为在这些过程中起着关键作用。到目前为止，主要的科学关注点一直是在这种情况下的抗氧化酶。这项概念验证研究首次直接在复发性抑郁症患者的皮质-边缘-丘脑-纹状体系统中检查产生自由基的酶，黄嘌呤氧化酶（XO）的活性。在复发性抑郁发作患者和无任何神经或精神病史的个体（7/7）的死后脑组织中确定了 XO 在皮质-边缘-丘脑-纹状体区域的活性。我们测量了以下脑区的 XO 活性：海马体、内嗅皮质、丘脑、壳核和尾状核。在这项研究中，我们报告了抑郁症患者丘脑和壳核 XO 活性的显著增加。我们的发现为越来越多的证据表明氧化应激在复发性抑郁障碍的某些大脑区域中起着关键作用提供了支持。
