Schubert Florian, Kühn Simone, Gallinat Jürgen, Mekle Ralf, Ittermann Bernd
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Braunschweig and Berlin, Germany.
Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Center for Lifespan Psychology, Berlin, Germany.
NMR Biomed. 2017 May;30(5). doi: 10.1002/nbm.3685. Epub 2017 Jan 6.
The amygdala plays a key role in emotional learning and in the processing of emotions. As disturbed amygdala function has been linked to several psychiatric conditions, a knowledge of its biochemistry, especially neurotransmitter levels, is highly desirable. The spin echo full intensity acquired localized (SPECIAL) sequence, together with a transmit/receive coil, was used to perform very short-TE magnetic resonance spectroscopy at 3 T to determine the neurochemical profile in a spectroscopic voxel containing the amygdala in 21 healthy adult subjects. For spectral analysis, advanced data processing was applied in combination with a macromolecule baseline measured in the anterior cingulate for spectral fitting. The concentrations of total N-acetylaspartate, total creatine, total choline, myo-inositol and, for the first time, glutamate were quantified with high reliability (uncertainties far below 10%). For these metabolites, the inter-individual variability, reflected by the relative standard deviations for the cohort studied, varied between 12% (glutamate) and 22% (myo-inositol). Glutamine and glutathione could also be determined, albeit with lower precision. Retest on four subjects showed good reproducibility. The devised method allows the determination of metabolite concentrations in the amygdala voxel, including glutamate, provides an estimation of glutamine and glutathione, and may help in the study of disturbed amygdala metabolism in pathologies such as anxiety disorder, autism and major depression.
杏仁核在情绪学习和情绪处理中起着关键作用。由于杏仁核功能紊乱与多种精神疾病有关，因此对其生物化学，尤其是神经递质水平的了解非常必要。采用自旋回波全强度采集定位（SPECIAL）序列，结合发射/接收线圈，在3T磁场下进行极短回波时间磁共振波谱分析，以确定21名健康成年受试者中包含杏仁核的波谱体素内的神经化学特征。在频谱分析中，将先进的数据处理与在前扣带回中测量的大分子基线相结合用于频谱拟合。总N-乙酰天门冬氨酸、总肌酸、总胆碱、肌醇以及首次测定的谷氨酸的浓度以高可靠性进行了定量（不确定度远低于10%）。对于这些代谢物，在所研究队列中由相对标准偏差反映的个体间变异性在12%（谷氨酸）至22%（肌醇）之间变化。谷氨酰胺和谷胱甘肽也能够被测定，尽管精度较低。对四名受试者进行的重测显示出良好的可重复性。所设计的方法能够测定杏仁核体素中的代谢物浓度，包括谷氨酸，还能对谷氨酰胺和谷胱甘肽进行估算，并且可能有助于研究焦虑症、自闭症和重度抑郁症等疾病中杏仁核代谢紊乱的情况。
