Li Xinwei, Li Deyu, Li Qiongling, Li Yuxia, Li Kuncheng, Li Shuyu, Han Ying
Key Laboratory for Biomechanics and Mechanobiology of the Ministry of Education, School of Biological Science &Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China.
Department of Neurology, Xuan Wu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100053, China.
Sci Rep. 2016 Feb 15;6:20873. doi: 10.1038/srep20873.
Memory impairment is a typical characteristic of patients with subcortical vascular mild cognitive impairment (svMCI) or with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). The hippocampus, which plays an important role in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory, is a heterogeneous structure that consists of several anatomically and functionally distinct subfields. However, whether distinct hippocampal subfields are differentially and selectively affected by svMCI pathology and whether these abnormal changes in hippocampal subfields are different between svMCI and aMCI patients are largely unknown. A total of 26 svMCI patients, 26 aMCI patients and 26 healthy controls matched according to age, gender and years of education were enrolled in this study. We utilized an automated hippocampal subfield segmentation method provided by FreeSurfer to estimate the volume of several hippocampal subfields, including the cornu ammonis (CA) areas, the dentate gyrus (DG), the subiculum and the presubiculum. Compared with controls, the left subiculum and presubiculum and the right CA4/DG displayed significant atrophy in patients with svMCI. Interestingly, we also found significant differences in the volume of the right CA1 between the svMCI and aMCI groups. Taken together, our results reveal region-specific vulnerability of hippocampal subfields to svMCI pathology and identify distinct hippocampal subfield atrophy patterns between svMCI and aMCI patients.
记忆障碍是皮质下血管性轻度认知障碍（svMCI）或遗忘型轻度认知障碍（aMCI）患者的典型特征。海马体在将信息从短期记忆巩固为长期记忆的过程中起着重要作用，它是一个异质性结构，由几个在解剖学和功能上不同的亚区域组成。然而，不同的海马体亚区域是否受到svMCI病理的差异性和选择性影响，以及这些海马体亚区域的异常变化在svMCI患者和aMCI患者之间是否存在差异，目前尚不清楚。本研究共纳入了26例svMCI患者、26例aMCI患者以及26名根据年龄、性别和受教育年限匹配的健康对照者。我们采用了FreeSurfer提供的自动海马体亚区域分割方法来估计几个海马体亚区域的体积，包括海马角（CA）区域、齿状回（DG）、下托和前下托。与对照组相比，svMCI患者的左侧下托和前下托以及右侧CA4/DG出现了明显萎缩。有趣的是，我们还发现svMCI组和aMCI组之间右侧CA1的体积存在显著差异。综上所述，我们的研究结果揭示了海马体亚区域对svMCI病理的区域特异性易损性，并确定了svMCI患者和aMCI患者之间不同的海马体亚区域萎缩模式。
