Lyu Hailong, Hu Maorong, Eyler Lisa T, Jin Hua, Wang Juan, Ou Jianjun, Guo Xiaofeng, He Zhong, Liu Fang, Zhao Jingping, Guo Wenbin
Mental Health Institute of the Second Xiangya Hospital, Key Laboratory of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Hunan Province, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, PR China.
Mental Health Center of Jiangxi Province, Nanchang, PR China.
Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2015 Mar;49(3):246-54. doi: 10.1177/0004867414554268. Epub 2014 Oct 15.
Shared neuropathological features between schizophrenia patients and their siblings may represent intermediate phenotypes of schizophrenia and can be used to investigate genetic susceptibility to the illness. This study aimed to discover regional white matter abnormalities in first-episode schizophrenia (FES) patients and their unaffected siblings compared to healthy subjects in the Chinese Han population using optimized Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM).
A total of 51 drug-naive, FES patients, 45 of their unaffected siblings and 59 healthy comparisons were studied with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
FES patients exhibited significant regional white matter deficits in the left inferior frontal gyrus and left joint of external capsule and internal capsule compared with healthy subjects (corrected FDR, p<0.005). The sibling group also showed significant white matter deficits in these two regions compared with the healthy comparison group (uncorrected, p<0.001). White matter deficits with a less stringent threshold for significance in the left cerebellum anterior lobe, left middle frontal gyrus, left hippocampus, right anterior cingulate and right internal capsule were observed in patients compared to their siblings.
Our findings extend those from previous VBM analyses showing that FES patients and their unaffected siblings may share white matter deficits in the left inferior frontal gyrus and the left joint of external capsule and internal capsule. These regional white matter deficits may be related to genetic factors related to schizophrenia susceptibility.
精神分裂症患者与其兄弟姐妹之间共享的神经病理学特征可能代表精神分裂症的中间表型，可用于研究该疾病的遗传易感性。本研究旨在使用优化的基于体素的形态学测量（VBM）方法，在中国汉族人群中发现首发精神分裂症（FES）患者及其未患病的兄弟姐妹与健康受试者相比的区域白质异常。
对51名未用药的FES患者、45名其未患病的兄弟姐妹以及59名健康对照者进行了磁共振成像（MRI）研究。
与健康受试者相比，FES患者在左侧额下回以及左侧外囊与内囊交界处表现出显著的区域白质缺损（校正FDR，p<0.005）。与健康对照组相比，兄弟姐妹组在这两个区域也表现出显著的白质缺损（未校正，p<0.001）。与他们的兄弟姐妹相比，患者在左侧小脑前叶、左侧额中回、左侧海马、右侧前扣带回和右侧内囊观察到具有较低显著性阈值的白质缺损。
我们的研究结果扩展了先前VBM分析的结果，表明FES患者及其未患病的兄弟姐妹可能在左侧额下回以及左侧外囊与内囊交界处共享白质缺损。这些区域白质缺损可能与精神分裂症易感性相关的遗传因素有关。
