Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), 91054 Erlangen, Germany.
Department of Behavioural and Molecular Neurobiology, University of Regensburg, 93040 Regensburg, Germany.
Cells. 2020 May 17;9(5):1239. doi: 10.3390/cells9051239.
Changes in sphingolipid metabolism have been suggested to contribute to the pathophysiology of major depression. In this study, we investigated the activity of acid and neutral sphingomyelinases (ASM, NSM) and ceramidases (AC, NC), respectively, in twelve brain regions of female rats selectively bred for high (HAB) versus low (LAB) anxiety-like behavior. Concomitant with their highly anxious and depressive-like phenotype, HAB rats showed increased activity of ASM and NSM as well as of AC and NC in multiple brain regions associated with anxiety- and depressive-like behavior, including the lateral septum, hypothalamus, ventral hippocampus, ventral and dorsal mesencephalon. Strong correlations between anxiety-like behavior and ASM activity were found in female HAB rats in the amygdala, ventral hippocampus and dorsal mesencephalon, whereas NSM activity correlated with anxiety levels in the dorsal mesencephalon. These results provide novel information about the sphingolipid metabolism, especially about the sphingomyelinases and ceramidases, in major depression and comorbid anxiety.
已有研究表明，鞘脂代谢的变化可能与重度抑郁症的病理生理学有关。在这项研究中，我们分别研究了在焦虑样行为选择繁育的雌性大鼠的 12 个脑区中酸性和中性鞘磷脂酶（ASM、NSM）和神经酰胺酶（AC、NC）的活性。高焦虑（HAB）大鼠表现出与高度焦虑和抑郁样表型相关的多种脑区的 ASM 和 NSM 活性增加，以及 AC 和 NC 活性增加，包括外侧隔核、下丘脑、腹侧海马、腹侧和背侧中脑。在雌性 HAB 大鼠中，杏仁核、腹侧海马和背侧中脑的 ASM 活性与焦虑样行为呈强相关性，而 NSM 活性与背侧中脑的焦虑水平相关。这些结果提供了关于重度抑郁症和共病焦虑症中鞘脂代谢的新信息，尤其是关于鞘磷脂酶和神经酰胺酶。
