Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria.
Department of Anatomy and Biomechanics, Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, Krems, Lower Austria 3500, Austria.
Cereb Cortex. 2021 Jul 5;31(8):3713-3722. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhab042.
Knowledge about structural brain asymmetries of human fetuses with body lateralization defects-congenital diseases in which visceral organs are partially or completely incorrectly positioned-can improve our understanding of the developmental origins of hemispheric brain asymmetry. This study investigated structural brain asymmetry in 21 fetuses, which were diagnosed with different types of lateralization defects; 5 fetuses with ciliopathies and 26 age-matched healthy control cases, between 22 and 34 gestational weeks of age. For this purpose, a database of 4007 fetal magnetic resonance imagings (MRIs) was accessed and searched for the corresponding diagnoses. Specific temporal lobe brain asymmetry indices were quantified using in vivo, super-resolution-processed MR brain imaging data. Results revealed that the perisylvian fetal structural brain lateralization patterns and asymmetry indices did not differ between cases with lateralization defects, ciliopathies, and normal controls. Molecular mechanisms involved in the definition of the right/left body axis-including cilium-dependent lateralization processes-appear to occur independently from those involved in the early establishment of structural human brain asymmetries. Atypically inverted early structural brain asymmetries are similarly rare in individuals with lateralization defects and may have a complex, multifactorial, and neurodevelopmental background with currently unknown postnatal functional consequences.
关于具有身体偏侧化缺陷（内脏器官部分或完全错位的先天性疾病）的人类胎儿的结构脑不对称性的知识，可以帮助我们更好地理解大脑半球结构不对称性的发育起源。本研究调查了 21 名患有不同类型偏侧化缺陷的胎儿的结构脑不对称性，其中 5 名患有纤毛病，26 名年龄匹配的健康对照组，胎儿年龄在 22 至 34 孕周之间。为此，我们访问并搜索了 4007 例胎儿磁共振成像（MRI）数据库以寻找相应的诊断。使用体内超分辨率处理的 MRI 脑成像数据来量化特定的颞叶脑不对称指数。结果表明，具有偏侧化缺陷、纤毛病和正常对照组的胎儿结构脑偏侧化模式和不对称指数没有差异。涉及定义右侧/左侧身体轴的分子机制——包括依赖纤毛的偏侧化过程——似乎与早期建立人类大脑结构不对称性的机制无关。在具有偏侧化缺陷的个体中，早期结构脑不对称性的异常倒置同样罕见，可能具有复杂的、多因素的神经发育背景，其目前尚不清楚的出生后功能后果。
