Neuropathological abnormalities of astrocytes, GABAergic neurons, and pyramidal neurons in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortices of patients with major depressive disorder

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• 作者：Dong Hoon Oh^a ; Hyeon Son^b ; Sejin Hwang^c ; Seok Hyeon Kim^a ; ^{shkim1219@hanyang.ac.kr}
• 关键词：Data mining ; Calretinin ; Glutamate ; Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex ; Major depressive disorder
• 刊名：European Neuropsychopharmacology
• 出版年：2012
• 出版时间：May, 2012
• 年：2012
• 卷：22
• 期：5
• 页码：330-338
• 全文大小：467 K

文摘

Human post-mortem brain studies have revealed reduced density and size of neurons and glial cells in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) in major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the basis of these cytoarchitectural abnormalities and the relationship between them are not understood. We hypothesized that the reduced density of GABAergic neurons and glial cells was associated with altered glutamate neurotransmission in the dlPFC. In order to test this hypothesis, we examined a specific marker type (i.e., calretinin, CR: as a marker of GABAergic neurons) and also attempted to identify the neuropathological markers that correlate with the density of CR-immunoreactive (IR) GABAergic neurons in the dlPFC, using the Stanley Neuropathology Consortium Integrative Database (SNCID, ), which is a web-based tool used to integrate Stanley Medical Research Institute (SMRI) data sets. We found that the density of CR-IR GABAergic neurons was significantly lower in layer I of the dlPFC of MDD patients (n = 15) than in that of unaffected controls (n = 15) (p = 0.021). CR-IR GABAergic neuronal changes were positively correlated with changes in several markers for glial cells and pyramidal neurons in the dlPFC of all SNC subjects (n = 60). We also found that the glutamate changes negatively correlated with glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) expression levels and CR-IR GABAergic neuronal density in the prefrontal cortex of all SNC subjects (P < 0.05). These findings yield some insight into the mechanism by which increased glutamatergic neurotransmission leads to excitotoxic damage both in neurons and glial cells in the dlPFC of MDD patients.