Alterations in hippocampal subfield volumes among schizophrenia patients, their first-degree relatives and healthy subjects

Kazutaka Ohi; Kiyotaka Nemoto; Yuzuru Kataoka; Shunsuke Sugiyama; Yukimasa Muto; Toshiki Shioiri; Yasuhiro Kawasaki

doi:10.1016/j.pnpbp.2021.110291

Alterations in hippocampal subfield volumes among schizophrenia patients, their first-degree relatives and healthy subjects

Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2021 Aug 30:110:110291. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2021.110291. Epub 2021 Mar 2.

Authors

Kazutaka Ohi¹, Kiyotaka Nemoto², Yuzuru Kataoka³, Shunsuke Sugiyama⁴, Yukimasa Muto⁴, Toshiki Shioiri⁴, Yasuhiro Kawasaki³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine, Gifu, Japan; Department of General Internal Medicine, Kanazawa Medical University, Ishikawa, Japan. Electronic address: k_ohi@gifu-u.ac.jp.
² Department of Neuropsychiatry, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
³ Department of Neuropsychiatry, Kanazawa Medical University, Ishikawa, Japan.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine, Gifu, Japan.

PMID: 33662534
DOI: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2021.110291

Abstract

Reduced hippocampal volumes feature prominently in schizophrenia patients (SCZ). Although several studies have investigated hippocampal volume alterations between unaffected first-degree relatives (FR) of SCZ and healthy controls (HC), the results were inconsistent. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether FR have specific alterations in hippocampal subfield volumes. Three-Tesla T1-weighted MP-RAGE brain scans were collected from 347 subjects (138 SCZ, 47 FR and 162 HC) and processed using the hippocampal subfields algorithm in FreeSurfer v6.0. We investigated volumetric differences in the twelve hippocampal subfields bilaterally among SCZ, FR and HC. SCZ displayed bilateral reductions in whole hippocampal volume compared with FR and HC. The hippocampal volumes of FR did not differ from those of HC but exceeded those observed in SCZ. We found volumetric differences in specific hippocampal subfields, including the CA1, hippocampal fissure, presubiculum, molecular layer, fimbria and hippocampal-amygdala transitional area, among diagnostic groups. These alterations arose from differences in the hippocampal subfield volumes between SCZ and the other two diagnostic groups. However, right hippocampal fissure volumes linearly increased among the groups. In contrast, no significant volumetric differences were found in other hippocampal subfields between HC and FR. There were no significant intergroup differences in laterality in any hippocampal subfield volumes and no significant correlations between hippocampal subfield volumes and illness duration, psychiatric symptoms, antipsychotics or premorbid IQ in SCZ. Our findings suggest that volumetric alterations in hippocampal subfields (except the hippocampal fissure) in SCZ could be stable phenomena that are present at illness onset and minimally affected by antipsychotics.

Keywords: CA1; First-degree relative; Hippocampal fissure; Hippocampal subfields; Schizophrenia.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Amygdala / pathology
Brain / pathology
Family*
Female
Healthy Volunteers*
Hippocampus / pathology*
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted*
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Middle Aged
Schizophrenia / genetics*