Zou Y, Wu YQ, Han YJ, He XM, Zhao J. Application of proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in metabolic alterations of prefrontal white and gray matter in depression adolescents. World J Psychiatry 2024; 14(11): 1652-1660 [PMID: 39564168 DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v14.i11.1652]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Jiang Zhao, BMed, Doctor, Department of Radiology, Hangzhou Cancer Hospital, No. 34 Yanguan Lane, Zhongshan South Road, Shangcheng District, Hangzhou 310002, Zhejiang Province, China. hzzhaojiang@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Psychology
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Ying Zou, Yao-Jing Han, Department of Clinical Psychology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou 310005, Zhejiang Province, China
Yu-Qin Wu, Xiao-Ming He, Department of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou 310005, Zhejiang Province, China
Jiang Zhao, Department of Radiology, Hangzhou Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou 310002, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Zou Y wrote the manuscript; Zhao J reviewed the manuscript; Zou Y, Wu YQ, Han YJ, He XM and Zhao J collected the data; all authors annotated the manuscript.
Supported bythe General Scientific Research Project of Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education, No. Y202248840 and No. Y201942374.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Ethic Committee of The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University (Approval No. 2024 Research No. 035-01).
Informed consent statement: The Institutional Review Board waived the requirement for informed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jiang Zhao, BMed, Doctor, Department of Radiology, Hangzhou Cancer Hospital, No. 34 Yanguan Lane, Zhongshan South Road, Shangcheng District, Hangzhou 310002, Zhejiang Province, China. hzzhaojiang@163.com
Received: July 10, 2024 Revised: July 30, 2024 Accepted: August 1, 2024 Published online: November 19, 2024 Processing time: 119 Days and 21.1 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Cases of depression among adolescents are gradually increasing. The study of the physiological basis of cognitive function from a biochemical perspective has therefore been garnering increasing attention. Depression has been hypothesized to be associated with the brain biochemical metabolism of the anterior cingulate gyrus, frontal lobe white matter, and the thalamus.
AIM
To explore the application of proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) in the metabolic alterations in the prefrontal white matter (PWM) and gray matter (GM) in adolescents with depression.
METHODS
1H-MRS was performed for semi-quantitative analysis of the biochemical metabolites N-acetylaspartate (NAA), choline (Cho) complexes, creatine (Cr), and myo-inositol (mI) in bilateral PWM, anterior cingulate GM, and thalami of 31 adolescent patients with depression (research group) and 35 healthy adolescents (control group), and the NAA/Cr, Cho/Cr, and mI/Cr ratios were calculated. Meanwhile, Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) and Wechsler Memory Scale were used to assess the degree of depression and memory function in all adolescents. The correlation of brain metabolite levels with scale scores was also analyzed.
RESULTS
The research group had markedly higher HAMD-24 scores and lower memory quotient (MQ) compared with the control group (P < 0.05). Adolescents with depression were found to have lower bilateral PWM NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr ratios compared with healthy adolescents (P < 0.05). The mI/Cr ratios were found to be similar in both groups (P > 0.05). The bilateral anterior cingulate GM NAA/Cr, Cho/Cr, and mI/Cr also did not demonstrate marked differences (P > 0.05). No statistical inter-group difference was determined in NAA/Cr of the bilateral thalami (P > 0.05), while bilateral thalamic Cho/Cr and mI/Cr were reduced in teenagers with depression compared with healthy adolescents (P < 0.05). A significant negative correlation was observed between the HAMD-24 scores in adolescents with depression with bilateral PWM NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr and were inversely linked to bilateral thalamic Cho/Cr and mI/Cr (P < 0.05). In adolescents with depressions, MQ positively correlated with right PWH NAA/Cr, left PWH Cho/Cr, and bilateral thalamic Cho/Cr and mI/Cr.
CONCLUSION
PWM and thalamic metabolic abnormalities might influence teen depression, and the reduction in bilateral PWM NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr could be related to the neuropathology of adolescents with depression suffering from memory impairment. There exists a possibility of dysfunction of nerve cell membrane phospholipids in the thalami of adolescent patients with depression.
Core Tip: The prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate gyrus are the key regions that play a significant role in emotional processing and modulation, and the thalamus is closely related to emotional activities. In this study, multi-voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy scans were performed on the frontal white matter, anterior cingulate gray matter, and thalami in adolescents with depression, to explore the biochemical basis of the pathogenesis of teen depression.
