• Bartholomeus C M 'Benno' Haarman, Huibert Burger, Janine Doorduin, Remco J Renken, Anita J Sibeijn-Kuiper, Jan-Bernard C Marsman, Erik F J de Vries, Jan Cees de Groot, Hemmo A Drexhage, Richard Mendes, Willem A Nolen, and Rixt F Riemersma-Van der Lek.
• University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Psychiatry, Groningen, The Netherlands; Radiology Morphological Solutions, Berkel en Rodenrijs, The Netherlands. Electronic address: b.c.m.haarman@umcg.nl.
• Brain Behav. Immun. 2016 Aug 1; 56: 21-33.

BackgroundThe hippocampus is one of the brain regions that is involved in several pathophysiological theories about bipolar disorder (BD), such as the neuroinflammation theory and the corticolimbic metabolic dysregulation theory. We compared hippocampal volume and hippocampal metabolites in bipolar I disorder (BD-I) patients versus healthy controls (HCs) with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (MRS). We post hoc investigated whether hippocampal volume and hippocampal metabolites were associated with microglial activation and explored if potential illness modifying factors affected these hippocampal measurements and whether these were associated with experienced mood and functioning.Materials And MethodsTwenty-two BD-I patients and twenty-four HCs were included in the analyses. All subjects underwent psychiatric interviews as well as an MRI scan, including a T1 scan and PRESS magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Volumetric analysis was performed with Freesurfer. MRS quantification was performed with LC Model. A subgroup of 14 patients and 11 HCs also underwent a successful [(11)C]-(R)-PK11195 neuroinflammation positron emission tomography scan.ResultsIn contrast to our hypothesis, hippocampal volumes were not decreased in patients compared to HC after correcting for individual whole-brain volume variations. We demonstrated decreased N-acetylaspartate (NAA)+N-acetyl-aspartyl-glutamate (NAAG) and creatine (Cr)+phosphocreatine (PCr) concentrations in the left hippocampus. In the explorative analyses in the left hippocampus we identified positive associations between microglial activation and the NAA+NAAG concentration, between alcohol use and NAA+NAAG concentration, between microglial activation and the depression score and a negative relation between Cr+PCr concentration and experienced occupational disability. Duration of illness associated positively with volume bilaterally.ConclusionCompared to HCs, the decreased NAA+NAAG concentration in the left hippocampus of BD-I patients suggests a decreased neuronal integrity in this region. In addition we found a positive relation between microglial activation and neuronal integrity in vivo, corresponding to a differentiated microglial function where some microglia induce apoptosis while others stimulate neurogenesis.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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