Brunner Gina, Gajwani Ruchika, Gross Joachim, Gumley Andrew, Timmerman Rosanne H, Taylor Rebecca, Krishnadas Rajeev, Lawrie Stephen M, Schwannauer Matthias, Schultze-Lutter Frauke, Uhlhaas Peter J, Fracasso Alessio
School of Psychology and Neuroscience, Univ. of Glasgow, UK.
Institute of Health and Wellbeing, Univ. of Glasgow, UK.
Schizophr Res. 2025 Jan;275:107-114. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2024.12.005. Epub 2024 Dec 17.
The choroid plexus is an important structure within the ventricular system. Schizophrenia has been associated with morphological changes to the choroid plexus but the presence and extent of alterations at different illness stages is unclear.
We examined choroid plexus volumes in participants at clinical high-risk for psychosis (N = 110), participants with first-episode psychosis (N = 37), participants with schizophrenia (N = 28), clinical (N = 38) and non-clinical controls (N = 75). Automated segmentation (Gaussian mixture model) was used to estimate choroid plexus volumes from T1 magnetic resonance (MR) images. We then conducted a linear model and Bayes factor analysis to investigate group differences. In addition, the relationship between choroid plexus volumes and clinical characteristics was assessed.
Schizophrenia patients were characterized by increased choroid plexus and ventricular volume while first-episode psychosis and clinical high-risk for psychosis participants showed no differences in choroid plexus volumes. However, choroid plexus volumes in schizophrenia patients did not significantly differ from controls when controlling for ventricular volume. Finally, choroid plexus volumes were not associated with clinical characteristics in the clinical high-risk group.
Our findings suggest that morphological alterations are not specific to the choroid plexus in schizophrenia and early-stage psychosis. Previously reported choroid plexus abnormalities in schizophrenia patients could be explained by changes in ventricular volume.
脉络丛是脑室系统内的一个重要结构。精神分裂症与脉络丛的形态变化有关，但不同疾病阶段变化的存在情况和程度尚不清楚。
我们检查了精神病临床高危参与者（N = 110）、首发精神病参与者（N = 37）、精神分裂症参与者（N = 28）、临床对照组（N = 38）和非临床对照组（N = 75）的脉络丛体积。使用自动分割（高斯混合模型）从T1磁共振（MR）图像估计脉络丛体积。然后我们进行了线性模型和贝叶斯因子分析以研究组间差异。此外，评估了脉络丛体积与临床特征之间的关系。
精神分裂症患者的特征是脉络丛和脑室体积增加，而首发精神病和精神病临床高危参与者的脉络丛体积没有差异。然而，在控制脑室体积时，精神分裂症患者的脉络丛体积与对照组没有显著差异。最后，临床高危组的脉络丛体积与临床特征无关。
我们的研究结果表明，形态学改变并非精神分裂症和早期精神病中脉络丛所特有。先前报道的精神分裂症患者脉络丛异常可能由脑室体积变化来解释。
