Shim Jeong-Min, Cho Seo-Eun, Kang Chang-Ki, Kang Seung-Gul
Department of Nano Science and Technology, Gachon University Graduate School, Seongnam, Republic of Korea.
Department of Psychiatry, Gil Medical Center, Gachon University College of Medicine, Incheon, Republic of Korea.
Front Mol Neurosci. 2023 Aug 10;16:1214738. doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2023.1214738. eCollection 2023.
Abnormalities in myelin are believed to be one of the important causes of major depressive disorder, and it is becoming important to more accurately quantify myelin in magnetic resonance imaging of major depressive disorder patients. We aimed to investigate the difference in myelin concentration in the white matter and subcortical areas using new quantitative myelin-related maps of high-resolution 7 Tesla (7 T) magnetic resonance imaging between patients with major depressive disorder and healthy controls.
Myelin-related comparisons of the white matter and nearby subcortical regions were conducted between healthy controls ( = 36) and patients with major depressive disorder ( = 34). Smoothed quantitative ratio (sq-Ratio) myelin-related maps were created using the multi-echo magnetization-prepared two rapid gradient echoes (ME-MP2RAGE) sequence of the T1 and T2* images of 7 T magnetic resonance imaging. Differences in the myelin-related values of the regions of interest between the two groups were analyzed using a two-sample t-test, and multiple comparison corrections were performed using the false discovery rate.
The average sq-Ratio myelin-related values were 2.62% higher in the white matter and 2.26% higher in the subcortical regions of the healthy controls group than in the major depressive disorder group. In the group analysis of the healthy control and major depressive disorder groups, the sq-Ratio myelin-related values were significantly different in the fornix area of the white matter (false discovery rate-corrected = 0.012). In addition, significant differences were observed in both the left (false discovery rate-corrected = 0.04) and right thalamus (false discovery rate-corrected = 0.040) among the subcortical regions.
The average sq-ratio myelin-related value and sq-ratio myelin-related values in the fornix of the white matter and both thalami were higher in the healthy controls group than in the major depressive disorder group. We look forward to replicating our findings in other populations using larger sample sizes.
髓鞘异常被认为是重度抑郁症的重要病因之一，在重度抑郁症患者的磁共振成像中更准确地量化髓鞘变得愈发重要。我们旨在利用高分辨率7特斯拉（7T）磁共振成像的新定量髓鞘相关图谱，研究重度抑郁症患者与健康对照者白质和皮质下区域髓鞘浓度的差异。
对36名健康对照者和34名重度抑郁症患者进行白质及附近皮质下区域的髓鞘相关比较。使用7T磁共振成像T1和T2*图像的多回波磁化准备快速梯度回波（ME-MP2RAGE）序列创建平滑定量比率（sq-Ratio）髓鞘相关图谱。两组间感兴趣区域的髓鞘相关值差异采用双样本t检验分析，并使用错误发现率进行多重比较校正。
健康对照组白质的平均sq-Ratio髓鞘相关值比重度抑郁症组高2.62%，皮质下区域高2.26%。在健康对照组和重度抑郁症组的组间分析中，白质穹窿区域的sq-Ratio髓鞘相关值存在显著差异（错误发现率校正p = 0.012）。此外，在皮质下区域的左侧丘脑（错误发现率校正p = 0.04）和右侧丘脑（错误发现率校正p = 0.040）均观察到显著差异。
健康对照组白质穹窿及双侧丘脑的平均sq-比率髓鞘相关值高于重度抑郁症组。我们期待使用更大样本量在其他人群中重复我们的研究结果。
