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Icenhour A, Tapper S, Bednarska O, Witt ST, Tisell A, Lundberg P, Elsenbruch S, Walter S. Elucidating the putative link between prefrontal neurotransmission, functional connectivity, and affective symptoms in irritable bowel syndrome. Sci Rep 2019; 9:13590. [PMID: 31537890 PMCID: PMC6753205 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-50024-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2019] [Accepted: 08/15/2019] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Altered neural mechanisms are well-acknowledged in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a disorder of brain-gut-communication highly comorbid with anxiety and depression. As a key hub in corticolimbic inhibition, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) may be involved in disturbed emotion regulation in IBS. However, aberrant mPFC excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission potentially contributing to psychological symptoms in IBS remains unknown. Using quantitative magnetic resonance spectroscopy (qMRS), we compared mPFC glutamate + glutamine (Glx) and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA+) concentrations in 64 women with IBS and 32 age-matched healthy women (HCs) and investigated their association with anxiety and depression in correlational and subgroup analyses. Applying functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we explored whether altered neurotransmission was paralleled by aberrant mPFC resting-state functional connectivity (FC). IBS patients did not differ from HCs with respect to mPFC GABA+ or Glx levels. Anxiety was positively associated with mPFC GABA+ concentrations in IBS, whereas Glx was unrelated to psychological or gastrointestinal symptoms. Subgroup comparisons of patients with high or low anxiety symptom severity and HCs revealed increased GABA+ in patients with high symptom severity, and lower mPFC FC with adjacent anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a crucial region of emotion modulation. Our findings provide novel evidence that altered prefrontal inhibitory neurotransmission may be linked to anxiety in IBS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adriane Icenhour
- Department of Gastroenterology and Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
- Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV), Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Immunobiology, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
| | - Sofie Tapper
- Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV), Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Olga Bednarska
- Department of Gastroenterology and Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Suzanne T Witt
- Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV), Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Anders Tisell
- Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV), Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- Department of Radiation Physics, Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- Department of Radiology, Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Peter Lundberg
- Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV), Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- Department of Radiation Physics, Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- Department of Radiology, Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Sigrid Elsenbruch
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Immunobiology, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Susanna Walter
- Department of Gastroenterology and Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV), Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
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