RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Cerebral grey matter density is associated with neuroreceptor and neurotransporter availability: A combined PET and MRI study
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.01.29.924530
DO 10.1101/2020.01.29.924530
A1 Sandra Manninen
A1 Tomi Karjalainen
A1 Lauri J. Tuominen
A1 Jarmo Hietala
A1 Valtteri Kaasinen
A1 Juho Joutsa
A1 Juha Rinne
A1 Lauri Nummenmaa
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/01/30/2020.01.29.924530.abstract
AB Positron emission tomography (PET) can be used for in vivo measurement of specific neuroreceptors and transporters using radioligands, while voxel-based morphometric analysis of magnetic resonance images allows automated estimation of local grey matter densities. However, it is not known how regional neuroreceptor or transporter densities are reflected in grey matter densities. Here, we analyzed brain scans retrospectively from 325 subjects and compared grey matter density estimates with three different neuroreceptors and transporter availabilities. µ-opioid receptors (MORs) were measured with [11C]carfentanil (162 scans), dopamine D2 receptors with [11C]raclopride (91 scans) and serotonin transporters (SERT) with [11C]MADAM (72 scans). The PET data were modelled with simplified reference tissue model. Voxel-wise correlations between binding potential and grey matter density images were computed. Regional binding of all the used radiotracers was associated with grey matter density in region and ligand-specific manner independently of subjects’ age or sex. These data show that grey matter density and MOR and D2R neuroreceptor / SERT availability are correlated, with effect sizes (r2) ranging from 0.04 to 0.69. This suggests that future studies comparing PET outcome measure different groups (such as patients and controls) should take grey matter density differences between the groups into account.