title: Associations of hippocampal metabolism and regional brain grey matter in neuroleptic-naïve ultra-high-risk subjects and first-episode schizophrenia.
abstract: Hippocampal pathology has been shown to be central to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and a putative risk marker for developing psychosis. We applied both (1)H MRS (proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy) at 3Tesla and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) of high-resolution brain structural images in order to study the association of the metabolites glutamate (Glu) and N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA) in the hippocampus with whole-brain morphometry in 31 persons at ultra-high-risk for psychosis (UHR), 18 first-episode schizophrenia patients (Sz), and 42 healthy controls (all subjects being neuroleptic-naïve). Significantly diverging associations emerged for UHR subjects hippocampal glutamate showed positive correlation with the left superior frontal cortex, not seen in Sz or controls, while in first-episode schizophrenia patients a negative correlation was significant between glutamate and a left prefrontal area. For NAA, we observed different associations for left prefrontal and caudate clusters bilaterally for both high-risk and first-episode schizophrenia subjects, diverging from the pattern seen in healthy subjects. Our results suggest that associations of hippocampal metabolites in key areas of schizophrenia might vary due to liability to or onset of the disorder.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany. Electronic address: igor.nenadic@uni-jena.de.
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nenadic
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Raka
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Maitra
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Soumyajit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Basu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Maren
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dietzek
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Nils
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Schönfeld
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lorenz
authors.affiliation: Medical Physics Group, Institute for Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gussew
authors.affiliation: Orygen Youth Health Research Centre, Centre for Youth Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: G Paul
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Amminger
authors.affiliation: Orygen Youth Health Research Centre, Centre for Youth Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: McGorry
authors.affiliation: Medical Physics Group, Institute for Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Jürgen R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Reichenbach
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Heinrich
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sauer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany; Department of Neurology, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gaser
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Smesny
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001224:Aspartic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D066128:Gray Matter / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D062706:Prodromal Symptoms; D066244:Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D012306:Risk; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D001224:Aspartic Acid; D018698:Glutamic Acid; C000179:N-acetylaspartate
keywords: Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS); Prefrontal cortex (PFC); Psychosis; Schizophrenia; Voxel-based morphometry (VBM)