Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders, Shandong Key Laboratory of Digital Human and Clinical Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250012, China.
Institute of Brain and Brain-Inspired Science, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250012, China.
Cereb Cortex. 2023 Jan 5;33(3):651-662. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhac091.
Preterm (PT) birth is a potential factor for abnormal brain development. Although various alterations of cortical structure and functional connectivity in preterm infants have been reported, the underlying microstructural foundation is still undetected thoroughly in PT infants relative to full-term (FT) neonates. To detect the very early cortical microstructural alteration noninvasively with advanced neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) on a whole-brain basis, we used multi-shell diffusion MRI of healthy newborns selected from the Developing Human Connectome Project. 73 PT infants and 69 FT neonates scanned at term-equivalent age were included in this study. By extracting the core voxels of gray matter (GM) using GM-based spatial statistics (GBSS), we found that comparing to FT neonates, infants born preterm showed extensive lower neurite density in both primary and higher-order association cortices (FWE corrected, P < 0.025). Higher orientation dispersion was only found in very preterm subgroup in the orbitofrontal cortex, fronto-insular cortex, entorhinal cortex, a portion of posterior cingular gyrus, and medial parieto-occipital cortex. This study provided new insights into exploring structural MR for functional and behavioral variations in preterm population, and these findings may have marked clinical importance, particularly in the guidance of ameliorating the development of premature brain.
早产（PT）是大脑发育异常的潜在因素。虽然已有研究报道早产儿大脑皮质结构和功能连接发生了各种改变，但相对于足月（FT）新生儿，PT 婴儿皮质的微观结构基础仍未被充分检测到。为了在整个大脑的基础上使用先进的神经丝取向分散和密度成像（NODDI）无创地检测早期皮质微观结构改变，我们使用了从发展人类连接组计划中选择的健康新生儿的多壳扩散 MRI。本研究纳入了 73 名 PT 婴儿和 69 名 FT 新生儿，他们在胎龄相等时进行了扫描。通过使用基于 GM 的空间统计学（GBSS）提取 GM 的核心体素，我们发现与 FT 新生儿相比，早产儿的初级和高级联合皮质的神经丝密度普遍较低（经 FWE 校正，P < 0.025）。仅在前额叶皮质、额岛皮质、内嗅皮质、后扣带皮层的一部分和内侧顶枕叶皮质的非常早产儿亚组中发现了更高的取向分散。这项研究为探索早产儿群体的功能和行为变化的结构磁共振提供了新的视角，这些发现可能具有重要的临床意义，特别是在改善早产儿大脑发育方面的指导。
