Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Mood Disorders Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Mood Disorders Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
J Affect Disord. 2020 Jun 1;270:30-35. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2020.03.055. Epub 2020 Mar 27.
Epidermal growth factor (EGF) belongs to a family of growth factors implicated in the etiology of psychiatric illnesses. We conducted this cross-sectional case-control study to determine whether (1) serum EGF levels differ between bipolar disorder (BD) patients and non-BD comparison subjects, (2) EGF levels in patients are influenced by mood illness related factors (number of past mood episodes, medication treatment) and non-mood illness related factors (body mass index), and (3) lower EGF levels predict lower limbic brain volumes in BD.
We measured serum EGF in 51 early-stage BD patients and 22 healthy comparison subjects (HS). A subset of 25 patients underwent cerebral magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Participants were assessed at the University of British Columbia Mood Disorders Centre between June 2004 and June 2012.
A general linear model with diagnosis and BMI category (overweight/obese vs normal weight) as factors showed that patients had lower mean log(e)-transformed EGF (LnEGF) than HS (4.99 vs 5.47, p = .011). There was no effect of BMI and no diagnosis x BMI interaction. Multiple linear regression models showed that in patients, more past mood episodes predicted lower LnEGF (β = -0.358, t = -2.585, p = .013) and lower LnEGF predicted lower bilateral temporal lobe volumes (left: β = 0.560, p = .011; right: β = 0.543, p = .009).
Our cross-sectional study design limits our ability to make inferences about the causal directions of the relationships between EGF, diagnosis, mood episodes, and brain volumes.
These findings provide preliminary evidence that EGF is a novel biomarker that may play a role in the pathophysiology of BD.
表皮生长因子（EGF）属于生长因子家族，与精神疾病的病因有关。我们进行了这项横断面病例对照研究，以确定（1）双相障碍（BD）患者和非 BD 对照受试者之间的血清 EGF 水平是否存在差异，（2）患者的 EGF 水平是否受与情绪疾病相关的因素（过去情绪发作次数、药物治疗）和非情绪疾病相关的因素（体重指数）的影响，以及（3）较低的 EGF 水平是否可以预测 BD 患者的边缘脑体积较低。
我们测量了 51 名早期 BD 患者和 22 名健康对照者（HS）的血清 EGF。25 名患者进行了脑部磁共振成像（MRI）检查。参与者于 2004 年 6 月至 2012 年 6 月期间在不列颠哥伦比亚大学情绪障碍中心进行评估。
以诊断和 BMI 类别（超重/肥胖与正常体重）为因素的一般线性模型显示，患者的平均对数（e）转换 EGF（LnEGF）水平低于 HS（4.99 与 5.47，p = 0.011）。BMI 没有影响，也没有诊断 x BMI 相互作用。多元线性回归模型显示，在患者中，过去更多的情绪发作预示着较低的 LnEGF（β = -0.358，t = -2.585，p = 0.013），较低的 LnEGF 预示着双侧颞叶体积较低（左侧：β = 0.560，p = 0.011；右侧：β = 0.543，p = 0.009）。
我们的横断面研究设计限制了我们对 EGF、诊断、情绪发作和大脑体积之间关系的因果方向做出推断的能力。
这些发现提供了初步证据，表明 EGF 是一种新的生物标志物，可能在 BD 的病理生理学中发挥作用。
