White matter maturation during 12 months in individuals at ultra-high-risk for psychosis

OBJECTIVE

The neurodevelopmental hypothesis of psychosis suggests that disrupted white matter (WM) maturation underlies disease onset. In this longitudinal study, we investigated WM connectivity and compared WM changes between individuals at ultra-high-risk for psychosis (UHR) and healthy controls (HCs).

METHOD

Thirty UHR individuals and 23 HCs underwent MR diffusion tensor imaging before and after 12 months of non-manualized standard care. Positive and negative symptoms and level of functioning were assessed. Tract-based spatial statistics were employed.

RESULTS

During 12 months, none of the UHR individuals transitioned to psychosis. Both UHR individuals and HCs increased significantly in fractional anisotropy (FA). UHR individuals showed significant FA increases predominantly in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) (P = 0.01), and HCs showed significant FA increases in the left uncinate fasciculus (P = 0.03). Within UHR individuals, a significant positive correlation between FA change and age was observed predominantly in the left SLF (P = 0.02). Within HCs, no significant correlation between FA change and age was observed. No significant correlations between baseline FA and clinical outcomes were observed; however, FA changes were significantly positively correlated to changes in negative symptoms (P = 0.04).

CONCLUSION

As normal brain maturation occurs in a posterior to frontal direction, our findings could suggest disturbed WM maturation in UHR individuals.

Patterns of white matter microstructure in individuals at ultra-high-risk for psychosis: associations to level of functioning and clinical symptoms

BACKGROUND

Individuals at ultra-high-risk (UHR) for psychosis present with emerging symptoms and decline in functioning. Previous univariate analyses have indicated widespread white matter (WM) aberrations in multiple brain regions in UHR individuals and patients with schizophrenia. Using multivariate statistics, we investigated whole brain WM microstructure and associations between WM, clinical symptoms, and level of functioning in UHR individuals.

METHODS

Forty-five UHR individuals and 45 matched healthy controls (HCs) underwent magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) at 3 Tesla. UHR individuals were assessed with the Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental States, Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms, and Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale. Partial least-squares correlation analysis (PLSC) was used as statistical method.

RESULTS

PLSC group comparisons revealed one significant latent variable (LV) accounting for 52% of the cross-block covariance. This LV indicated a pattern of lower fractional anisotropy (FA), axial diffusivity (AD), and mode of anisotropy (MO) concomitant with higher radial diffusivity (RD) in widespread brain regions in UHR individuals compared with HCs. Within UHR individuals, PLSC revealed five significant LVs associated with symptoms and level of functioning. The first LV accounted for 31% of the cross-block covariance and indicated a pattern where higher symptom score and lower level of functioning correlated to lower FA, AD, MO, and higher RD.

CONCLUSIONS

UHR individuals demonstrate complex brain patterns of WM abnormalities. Despite the subtle psychopathology of UHR individuals, aberrations in WM appear associated with positive and negative symptoms as well as level of functioning.

Effects of erythropoietin on memory-relevant neurocircuitry activity and recall in mood disorders

OBJECTIVE

Erythropoietin (EPO) improves verbal memory and reverses subfield hippocampal volume loss across depression and bipolar disorder (BD). This study aimed to investigate with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) whether these effects were accompanied by functional changes in memory-relevant neuro-circuits in this cohort.

METHOD

Eighty-four patients with treatment-resistant unipolar depression who were moderately depressed or BD in remission were randomized to eight weekly EPO (40 000 IU) or saline infusions in a double-blind, parallel-group design. Participants underwent whole-brain fMRI at 3T, mood ratings, and blood tests at baseline and week 14. During fMRI, participants performed a picture encoding task followed by postscan recall.

RESULTS

Sixty-two patients had complete data (EPO: N = 32, saline: N = 30). EPO improved picture recall and increased encoding-related activity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and temporo-parietal regions, but not in hippocampus. Recall correlated with activity in the identified dlPFC and temporo-parietal regions at baseline, and change in recall correlated with activity change in these regions from baseline to follow-up across the entire cohort. The effects of EPO were not correlated with change in mood, red blood cells, blood pressure, or medication.

CONCLUSION

The findings highlight enhanced encoding-related dlPFC and temporo-parietal activity as key neuronal underpinnings of EPO-associated memory improvement.

tert.-butyl hydroperoxide-mediated DNA base damage in cultured mammalian cells

tert.-Butyl hydroperoxide has been utilized to study the effect of oxidative stress on living cells; however, its effect on DNA bases in cells has not been characterized. In the present work, we have investigated DNA base damage in mammalian cells exposed to this organic hydroperoxide. SP2/0 derived murine hybridoma cells were treated with 4 concentrations of tert.-butyl hydroperoxide for varying periods of time. Chromatin was isolated from treated and control cells and subsequently analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with selected-ion monitoring for DNA base damage. Quantification of damaged DNA bases was achieved by isotope-dilution mass spectrometry. The amounts of 8 products were significantly higher than control levels in cells treated with tert.-butyl hydroperoxide at a concentration range of 0.01-0.1 mM. At concentrations from 1.0 to 10 mM, product formation was inhibited and the amounts of products were similar to those in control cells. The bimodal nature of the dose-response may be qualitatively analogous to previous reports of bimodal killing of E. coli bacteria by hydrogen peroxide. The nature of the identified DNA base lesions suggests the involvement of the hydroxyl radical in their formation. tert.-Butyl hydroperoxide is known to produce the tert.-butoxyl radical in reactions with metal ions. However, it is unlikely that the tert.-butoxyl radical produces these DNA lesions. It is suggested that DNA base damage arises from tert.-butyl hydroperoxide-mediated oxidative stress in cells, resulting in formation of hydroxyl radicals in close proximity to DNA. The inhibition of product formation at high concentrations of tert.-butyl hydroperoxide may be explained by the scavenging of tert.-butoxyl radical by tert.-butyl hydroperoxide resulting in inhibition of oxidative stress. The plausibility of the scavenging mechanism was evaluated with a mathematical simulation of the dose-response for DNA damage in solutions containing hydrogen peroxide. The simulation model predicted a bimodal dose-response which agreed qualitatively with the results in this study and with other in vivo and in vitro studies reported in the literature.

Comparison of trypan blue dye exclusion and fluorometric assays for mammalian cell viability determinations

A hemocytometer-based trypan blue dye exclusion cell quantitation and viability assay was compared with a similar assay using simultaneous fluorometric staining with fluorescein diacetate and propidium iodide. Viable and nonviable cell densities were measured, and culture viability was calculated both during the normal growth cycle of a murine hybridoma and in response to the application of millimolar concentrations of either tert-butyl hydroperoxide or ferrous iron. During the early phase of rapid hybridoma cell growth, assay-based differences in viable cell density were not significant. As the culture aged, the trypan blue dye exclusion assay significantly overestimated cell viability, thereby underestimating nonviable cell density and yielding an erroneous estimation of the overall viability of the culture. Because of its lack of ambiguity in the identification of stained, nonviable cells and its resulting increased accuracy in the estimation of culture viability, the fluorometric assay was considered a better choice for the evaluation of cell viability.

On-line assessment of metabolic activities based on culture redox potential and dissolved oxygen profiles during aerobic fermentation

We report here on the utility of on-line culture redox potential and dissolved oxygen measurements to identify metabolic changes in fermentation by Corynebacterium glutamicum under aerobic conditions. Metabolic changes were identified by observing discrepancies in the profile of culture redox potential and dissolved oxygen. On the basis of these measurements, we can identify the end of the lag phase, threonine exhaustion, and glucose exhaustion during fermentation.

On-Line Detection of Substrate Exhaustion by Using NAD(P)H Fluorescence

In this study we examined the utility of NAD(P)H fluorescence for monitoring aerobic fermentations of the threonine auxotroph Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 14296. Instead of attempting complicated mathematical corrections for inner-filter effects, we found that it is possible to use the information contained in the on-line NAD(P)H fluorescence signal to assess culture metabolic activities during fermentation. The first derivative of the filtered fluorescence signal, which approximates the turnover rate of the NAD(P)H pool, can be used to precisely identify the temporal points of threonine and glucose exhaustion.