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Wortinger LA, Barth C, Nerland S, Jørgensen KN, Shadrin AA, Szabo A, Haukvik UK, Westlye LT, Andreassen OA, Thoresen M, Agartz I. Association of Birth Asphyxia With Regional White Matter Abnormalities Among Patients With Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorders. JAMA Netw Open 2021; 4:e2139759. [PMID: 34928356 PMCID: PMC8689382 DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.39759] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
IMPORTANCE White matter (WM) abnormalities are commonly reported in psychiatric disorders. Whether peripartum insufficiencies in brain oxygenation, known as birth asphyxia, are associated with WM of patients with severe mental disorders is unclear. OBJECTIVE To examine the association between birth asphyxia and WM in adult patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorders (BDs) compared with healthy adults. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In this case-control study, all individuals participating in the ongoing Thematically Organized Psychosis project were linked to the Medical Birth Registry of Norway (MBRN), where a subset of 271 patients (case group) and 529 healthy individuals (control group) had undergone diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). Statistical analyses were performed from June 16, 2020, to March 9, 2021. EXPOSURES Birth asphyxia was defined based on measures from standardized reporting at birth in the MBRN. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Associations between birth asphyxia and WM regions of interest diffusion metrics, ie, fractional anisotropy (FA), axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD), were compared between groups using analysis of covariance, adjusted for age, age squared, and sex. RESULTS Of the 850 adults included in the study, 271 were in the case group (140 [52%] female individuals; mean [SD] age, 28.64 [7.43] years) and 579 were in the control group (245 [42%] female individuals; mean [SD] age, 33.54 [8.31] years). Birth asphyxia measures were identified in 15% to 16% of participants, independent of group. The posterior limb of the internal capsule (PLIC) showed a significant diagnostic group × birth asphyxia interaction (F(1, 843) = 11.46; P = .001), reflecting a stronger association between birth asphyxia and FA in the case group than the control group. RD, but not AD, also displayed a significant diagnostic group × birth asphyxia interaction (F(1, 843) = 9.28; P = .002) in the PLIC, with higher values in patients with birth asphyxia and similar effect sizes as observed for FA. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this case-control study, abnormalities in the PLIC of adult patients with birth asphyxia may suggest a greater susceptibility to hypoxia in patients with severe mental illness, which could lead to myelin damage or impeded brain development. Echoing recent early-stage schizophrenia studies, abnormalities of the PLIC are relevant to psychiatric disorders, as the PLIC contains important WM brain pathways associated with language, cognitive function, and sensory function, which are impaired in schizophrenia and BDs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura A. Wortinger
- Department of Psychiatric Research, Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Claudia Barth
- Department of Psychiatric Research, Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Stener Nerland
- Department of Psychiatric Research, Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Kjetil Nordbø Jørgensen
- Department of Psychiatric Research, Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Alexey A. Shadrin
- Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Attila Szabo
- Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Department of Medical Genetics, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Unn Kristin Haukvik
- Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Centre of Research and Education in Forensic Psychiatry, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Department of Adult Psychiatry, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Lars T. Westlye
- Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- KG Jebsen Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Ole A. Andreassen
- Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- KG Jebsen Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Marianne Thoresen
- Department of Physiology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Neonatal Neuroscience, Translational Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Ingrid Agartz
- Department of Psychiatric Research, Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- KG Jebsen Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Centre for Psychiatric Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
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Wu Y, Yu XL, Xiao X, Li M, Li Y. Joint-Tissue Integrative Analysis Identified Hundreds of Schizophrenia Risk Genes. Mol Neurobiol 2021; 59:107-116. [PMID: 34628600 DOI: 10.1007/s12035-021-02572-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2021] [Accepted: 09/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified a large number of schizophrenia risk variants, and most of them are mapped to noncoding regions. By leveraging multiple joint-tissue gene expression data and GWAS data, we herein performed a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) and Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis and identified 144 genes whose mRNA levels were related to genetic risk of schizophrenia. Most of these genes exhibited diametrically opposite trends of expression in prenatal and postnatal brain tissues, despite that their expression levels in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) tissues did not significantly differ between schizophrenics and healthy controls. We then found significant enrichment of these genes in dopamine-related pathways that were repeatedly implicated in schizophrenia pathogenesis and in the action of antipsychotic drugs. Gene expression analysis using single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) data of mid-gestation fetal brains further revealed enrichment of these genes in glutamatergic excitatory neurons and cycling progenitors. These lines of evidence, in consistency with previous findings, confirmed the polygenic nature of schizophrenia and highlighted involvement of early neurodevelopment aberrations in this disorder. Further investigations using advanced algorithms in both bulk brain tissues and in single cells and at different developmental stages are necessary to characterize transcriptomic features of schizophrenia pathogenesis along brain development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yong Wu
- Affiliated Wuhan Mental Health Center, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, Hubei, China
| | - Xiao-Lin Yu
- Affiliated Wuhan Mental Health Center, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, Hubei, China
| | - Xiao Xiao
- Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of the Chinese Academy of Sciences & Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, Yunnan, China
| | - Ming Li
- Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of the Chinese Academy of Sciences & Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, Yunnan, China. .,CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031, China.
| | - Yi Li
- Affiliated Wuhan Mental Health Center, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, Hubei, China. .,Research Center for Psychological and Health Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei, China.
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