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Citation |
Zhao J, Verwer RWH, Gao SF, Qi XR, Lucassen PJ, Kessels HW, Swaab DF. J. Psychiatr. Res. 2018; 102: 261-274. |
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Affiliation |
Neuropsychiatric Disorders Group, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, An Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: d.f.swaab@nin.knaw.nl. |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing) |
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DOI |
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PMID |
29753198 |
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Abstract |
People that committed suicide were reported to have enhanced levels of gene transcripts for synaptic proteins in their prefrontal cortex (PFC). Given the close association of suicide with major depressive disorder (MDD), we here assessed whether these changes are related to suicide or rather to depression per se. We used quantitative PCR to determine mRNA levels of 32 genes encoding for proteins directly involved in glutamatergic or GABAergic synaptic transmission in postmortem samples of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC). Seventy-two brain samples from 3 groups of subjects were derived from the Stanley Medical Research Institute (SMRI): i) patients with MDD who committed suicide (MDD-S), ii) MDD patients who died of non-suicidal causes (MDD-NS) and iii) age-matched, non-psychiatric control subjects. In the ACC, a significantly enhanced expression of genes related to glutamatergic or GABAergic synaptic transmission was found only in MDD-S patients, whereas in MDD-NS patients, decreased levels for these transcripts were found. Moreover, in the DLPFC, expression of these genes was decreased in MDD-S, relative to MDD-NS patients, whereas both groups showed increased expression compared to control subjects. In conclusion, our findings indicate that MDD is associated with increases in GABA and glutamate related genes in the DLPFC (irrespective of suicide), while in the ACC, the increase in GABA and glutamate related genes may relate to suicide, rather than to MDD per se. Language: en |
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Keywords |
Anterior cingulate cortex; Depression; Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; GABA; Glutamate; Suicide |