Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, United States.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, United States.
Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging. 2021 Aug 30;314:111314. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2021.111314. Epub 2021 Jun 2.
Epidemiological studies show that altitude-of-residence is an independent risk factor for worsening rates of mood disorders, substance abuse, and suicide. Proton (1H) magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) studies in rodent models of moderate-to-high altitude exposure have documented significant alterations in total creatine, glutamate, and myo-inositol, neurometabolites involved in bioenergetic homeostasis and neuronal/glial cell function. This preliminary study utilized 3 Tesla 1H MRS to study anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and parietal-occipital cortex (POC) neurochemistry in healthy subjects residing in Utah (n = 19), Massachusetts (n = 10), and South Carolina (n = 10), to test the hypothesis that individuals residing at moderate altitude (Utah; 1,372 m) would show neurometabolite alterations vs. subjects living at sea level. Expressed as ratios to total N-acetyl aspartate (NAA), Utah participants showed lower ACC (p = 0.03) and POC (p < 0.01) total creatine, a trend towards lower ACC glutamate (p = 0.06), and lower POC myo-inositol (p = 0.02). Study limitations include small sample sizes and uncorrected multiple comparisons. To our knowledge, this is the first MRS investigation to identify potential neurochemical differences in individuals residing at moderate altitudes vs. sea level, warranting future 1H MRS studies in larger cohorts and across a range of altitudes-of-residence.
流行病学研究表明，居住地海拔是影响心境障碍、物质滥用和自杀恶化率的一个独立风险因素。在中高海拔暴露的啮齿动物模型中进行的质子（1H）磁共振波谱（MRS）研究表明，总肌酸、谷氨酸和肌醇等神经代谢物发生了显著改变，这些代谢物参与生物能量稳态和神经元/神经胶质细胞功能。本初步研究利用 3T 1H MRS 研究了居住在犹他州（n=19）、马萨诸塞州（n=10）和南卡罗来纳州（n=10）的健康受试者的前扣带回皮质（ACC）和顶枕叶皮质（POC）神经化学，以检验以下假设：居住在中海拔（犹他州，1372 米）的个体与居住在海平面的个体相比，神经代谢物会发生改变。与总 N-乙酰天冬氨酸（NAA）的比值相比，犹他州参与者的 ACC（p=0.03）和 POC（p<0.01）总肌酸降低，ACC 谷氨酸呈下降趋势（p=0.06），POC 肌醇降低（p=0.02）。研究局限性包括样本量小和未校正的多重比较。据我们所知，这是首次使用 MRS 技术来确定居住在中海拔与海平面的个体之间潜在的神经化学差异的研究，值得在更大的队列和更广泛的居住海拔范围内进行进一步的 1H MRS 研究。
