TY - JOUR
T1 - Heritability of Cerebral Blood Flow and the Correlation to Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: A Pseudo-continuous Arterial Spin Labeling Twin Study
AU - Legind, Christian S.
AU - Broberg, Brian V.
AU - Brouwer, Rachel
AU - Mandl, Rene C. W.
AU - Ebdrup, Bjorn H.
AU - Anhoj, Simon J.
AU - Jensen, Maria H.
AU - Hilker, Rikke Warming
AU - Fagerlund, Birgitte
AU - Pol, Hilleke E. Hulshoff
AU - Glenthoj, Birte Yding
AU - Rostrup, Egill
PY - 2019/10/24
Y1 - 2019/10/24
N2 - Whether aberrant cerebral blood flow (CBF) in schizophrenia is affected by genetic influences, and consequently a potential marker for genetic susceptibility, is unknown. Our aims were to determine the heritability of CBF in thalamic, frontal, and striatal areas, and to ascertain if associations with disease were under genetic influence. Monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs concordant (n = 2) or discordant (n = 20) for schizophrenia spectrum disorders (ICD-10 F2x.x), matched on sex and age with dizygotic (DZ; n = 20) and healthy control pairs (MZ: n = 27; DZ: n = 18; total: n = 181 individuals), were recruited via the National Danish Twin Register. CBF in thalamus, frontal lobes, and putamen was measured with pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling on a 3 T magnetic resonance scanner. Twin statistics were performed with structural equation modeling. CBF in the frontal lobes was heritable (h2 = 0.44, 95% CI [0.22-0.60]) but not correlated to disease. CBF correlated to schizophrenia spectrum disorders in the left thalamus (r = 0.17, [0.03-0.31]; P = 0.02), as well as in the left putamen (r = 0.19, [0.05-0.32]; P = 0.007) and the right putamen (r = 0.18, [0.03-0.32]; P = 0.02). When restricting the sample to schizophrenia (F20.x) only, shared genetic influences between CBF in the left putamen and schizophrenia liability (phenotypic correlation = 0.44, [0.28-0.58], P < 0.001) were found. Our results provide heritability estimates of CBF in the frontal lobes, and we find CBF in thalamus and putamen to be altered in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Furthermore, shared genetic factors influence schizophrenia liability and striatal perfusion. Specifically, higher perfusion in the left putamen may constitute a marker of genetic susceptibility for schizophrenia.
AB - Whether aberrant cerebral blood flow (CBF) in schizophrenia is affected by genetic influences, and consequently a potential marker for genetic susceptibility, is unknown. Our aims were to determine the heritability of CBF in thalamic, frontal, and striatal areas, and to ascertain if associations with disease were under genetic influence. Monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs concordant (n = 2) or discordant (n = 20) for schizophrenia spectrum disorders (ICD-10 F2x.x), matched on sex and age with dizygotic (DZ; n = 20) and healthy control pairs (MZ: n = 27; DZ: n = 18; total: n = 181 individuals), were recruited via the National Danish Twin Register. CBF in thalamus, frontal lobes, and putamen was measured with pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling on a 3 T magnetic resonance scanner. Twin statistics were performed with structural equation modeling. CBF in the frontal lobes was heritable (h2 = 0.44, 95% CI [0.22-0.60]) but not correlated to disease. CBF correlated to schizophrenia spectrum disorders in the left thalamus (r = 0.17, [0.03-0.31]; P = 0.02), as well as in the left putamen (r = 0.19, [0.05-0.32]; P = 0.007) and the right putamen (r = 0.18, [0.03-0.32]; P = 0.02). When restricting the sample to schizophrenia (F20.x) only, shared genetic influences between CBF in the left putamen and schizophrenia liability (phenotypic correlation = 0.44, [0.28-0.58], P < 0.001) were found. Our results provide heritability estimates of CBF in the frontal lobes, and we find CBF in thalamus and putamen to be altered in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Furthermore, shared genetic factors influence schizophrenia liability and striatal perfusion. Specifically, higher perfusion in the left putamen may constitute a marker of genetic susceptibility for schizophrenia.
KW - pCASL
KW - cerebral blood flow
KW - relatives, twins
KW - genes
U2 - 10.1093/schbul/sbz007
DO - 10.1093/schbul/sbz007
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 30776063
SN - 0586-7614
VL - 45
SP - 1231
EP - 1241
JO - Schizophrenia Bulletin
JF - Schizophrenia Bulletin
IS - 6
ER -