Polymorphism Influences the Cerebral Blood Flow Changes Related to Psychomotor Retardation in Major Depressive Disorder.

BACKGROUND

Previous studies revealed different cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes of major depressive disorder (MDD) patients with psychomotor retardation (PMR). These different changes might result from the modulation of other factors, such as genes. This study aimed to investigate the influence of polymorphism on the CBF alterations in MDD patients with PMR.

METHODS

genotypes and arterial spin labeling-magnetic resonance imaging (ASL-MRI) data of 103 Chinese Han participants (63 MDD, 40 NCs) were collected in this study. MDD patients were divided into PMR group (N = 23) and NPMR group (N = 40) according to the Salpetriere Retardation Rating Scale score. PMR, NPMR and NCs groups were further divided into two subgroups, respectively, based on the genotype. CBF throughout the whole brain was calculated based on the ASL-MRI data. A two-way factorial analysis of covariance was used to investigate the main effects of PMR, allele, as well as the interactions between and PMR on the CBF in a voxel-wise manner. Partial correlation analyses were also applied to evaluate the association between the CBF of significant brain regions and the PMR severity.

RESULTS

Main effect of PMR mainly influenced the CBF of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Main effect of mainly influenced the CBF of the thalamus. The interaction between PMR and primarily influenced the CBF of left precuneus and right caudate. The CBF of PFC was positively correlated with the PMR severity.

CONCLUSION

Our findings indicate that the allele could modulate the CBF changes of the left precuneus and right caudate in MDD patients with PMR, providing additional layer of information regarding earlier reports for different CBF changes of MDD patients with psychomotor retardation in the literature, which were assessed irrespective of polymorphisms among patients.