Department of Psychiatry, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
Institute of Behavioral Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
Kaohsiung J Med Sci. 2019 Jul;35(7):440-445. doi: 10.1002/kjm2.12067. Epub 2019 Apr 10.
Studies on the cholesterol-serotonin hypothesis and its link to mood disorders are scarce. In addition, little is known about the association between cholesterol and the effects of tryptophan depletion (TD). The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between plasma cholesterol and changes in heart rate variability (HRV), an important marker of depression and anxiety, after TD. The plasma cholesterol levels of 28 healthy participants were noted, and their HRVs were measured by spectrum analysis. TD was carried out on testing day, and participants provided blood samples just before and 5 hours for tryptophan level after TD. HRV was measured again after TD. An association was found between plasma cholesterol levels and the change in HRV. Decreased high frequency HRV was marginally associated with lower levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, while increased low frequency HRV was significantly associated with lower levels of total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Our findings indicate that low cholesterol levels may play parts of role in the mechanism of the deactivation of parasympathetic, and activation of sympathetic, functions induced by altered serotonergic function.
关于胆固醇-血清素假说及其与情绪障碍的关系的研究很少。此外，人们对胆固醇与色氨酸耗竭（TD）的影响之间的关系知之甚少。本研究旨在探讨 TD 后血浆胆固醇与心率变异性（HRV）变化之间的关系，HRV 是抑郁和焦虑的一个重要标志物。记录了 28 名健康参与者的血浆胆固醇水平，并通过频谱分析测量了他们的 HRV。TD 在测试日进行，参与者在 TD 前和 TD 后 5 小时提供了血液样本以测量色氨酸水平。TD 后再次测量 HRV。发现血浆胆固醇水平与 HRV 的变化之间存在关联。高频 HRV 的降低与高密度脂蛋白胆固醇水平降低呈边缘相关，而低频 HRV 的增加与总胆固醇和低密度脂蛋白胆固醇水平降低显著相关。我们的研究结果表明，低胆固醇水平可能在改变血清素功能引起的副交感神经失活和交感神经激活的机制中发挥作用。
