No association of Brain-derived neurotrophic factor with striatal dopamine transporter availability in healthy subjects.

OBJECTIVE

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a neurotrophin that plays a key role in brain plasticity, synaptic function, neuronal survival, learning, and memory formation. We aimed to investigate the association of BDNF with dopamine transporter (DAT) availabilities measured by positron emission tomography (PET) in healthy subjects.

METHODS

Thirty-five healthy, male subjects without brain injury, neuropsychological disorders were included in this study. The emission data were acquired over 90 mins with 50 frames after injection of 18F-FP-CIT using PET. Binding potentials (BPs) of ventral striatum (VST), caudate nucleus, putamen were measured with the simplified reference tissue method. The serum BDNF level (pg/mL) was measured through enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method.

RESULTS

Thirty-five healthy males with a mean age of 24.4 ± 2.7 years were included in this study. Multiple regression was done to investigate the association between striatal BPNDs from VST, caudate nucleus, putamen and serum BDNF after adjusting for age. None of striatal BPNDs from VST (p=0.8450), caudate nucleus (p=0.4783), and putamen (p=0.7994) were associated with serum BDNF.

CONCLUSION

Striatal DAT availabilities measured from PET were not associated with the serum BDNF in healthy subjects.