Zhu Dao-Min, Zhao Wenming, Cui Shunshun, Jiang Ping, Zhang Yu, Zhang Cun, Zhu Jiajia, Yu Yongqiang
Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
Department of Sleep Disorders, Affiliated Psychological Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
Front Aging Neurosci. 2022 Feb 10;14:817607. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.817607. eCollection 2022.
Evidence suggests the pivotal role of vitamin D in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD) via its effects on the brain. Gender differences exist in both depression and vitamin D level. Our objective was to investigate the association between gender, vitamin D, clinical manifestations, and functional network connectivity in a large sample of MDD patients and healthy controls. Resting-state functional MRI data were collected from 122 patients and 119 controls, with independent component analysis adopted to examine large-scale inter- and intranetwork functional connectivity. Serum concentration of vitamin D (SCVD) and clinical manifestations were also assessed. MDD patients exhibited lower SCVD than controls in females but not males. Moreover, we identified a female-specific association between lower SCVD and poorer cognitive performance. Concurrently, MDD-related functional network connectivity changes were correlated with SCVD in females as well as depression and anxiety symptoms in female patients. Remarkably, MDD- and SCVD-related functional network connectivity alterations mediated the associations between SCVD and cognition in females. Aside from providing evidence for a female-specific neurobiological mechanism whereby low vitamin D might contribute to MDD and its associated clinical characteristics, our findings inform a novel conceptualization that adjuvant vitamin D supplementation therapy may yield clinical benefits in improving treatment outcomes in female patients with MDD.
有证据表明维生素D通过对大脑的影响在重度抑郁症（MDD）的病理生理学中起关键作用。抑郁症和维生素D水平都存在性别差异。我们的目的是在大量MDD患者和健康对照样本中研究性别、维生素D、临床表现和功能网络连通性之间的关联。收集了122例患者和119例对照的静息态功能磁共振成像数据，采用独立成分分析来检查大规模网络间和网络内的功能连通性。还评估了维生素D血清浓度（SCVD）和临床表现。在女性MDD患者中，其SCVD低于对照组，但男性患者中未出现此情况。此外，我们发现SCVD较低与女性较差的认知表现之间存在特定于女性的关联。同时，与MDD相关的功能网络连通性变化在女性中与SCVD相关，在女性患者中也与抑郁和焦虑症状相关。值得注意的是，与MDD和SCVD相关的功能网络连通性改变介导了女性中SCVD与认知之间的关联。除了为低维生素D可能导致MDD及其相关临床特征的特定于女性的神经生物学机制提供证据外，我们的研究结果还提出了一种新的概念，即辅助补充维生素D疗法可能在改善女性MDD患者的治疗结果方面产生临床益处。
