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Different impact of t.gondii seropositivity on the brain morphometry in schizophrenia and healthy control groups

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

J. Horacek
Affiliation:
Prague Psychiatric Centre (PCP), 3rd Medical Faculty of Charles University, Praha, Czech Republic
J. Flegr
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science of Charles University, Praha, Czech Republic
D. Holub
Affiliation:
PCP, Praha, Czech Republic
J. Tintera
Affiliation:
Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Praha, Czech Republic
T. Novak
Affiliation:
PCP, Praha, Czech Republic
M. Brunovsky
Affiliation:
PCP, Praha, Czech Republic
C. Höschl
Affiliation:
Prague Psychiatric Centre, Praha, Czech Republic

Abstract

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Background

The role of coccidian protozoa Toxoplasma gondii represents one of the most enigmatic and unexplained questions in the field of pathophysiology of schizophrenia. To address the role of latent Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) infection in pathophysiology of schizophrenia we studied the influence of latent toxoplasmosis on brain morphology in schizophrenia.

Methods

Magnetic resonance imaging was analyzed by an optimized voxel-based-morphometry (VBM) in 44 schizophrenic patients (12 T. gondii positive) and 56 controls (13 T. gondii positive). The full factorial model of analysis of variance with diagnosis and seropositivity for latent toxoplasmosis as factors was used to address the differences in gray and white matter.

Findings

VBM analyses showed the grey matter (GM) volume reduction in schizophrenia patients compared with controls bilaterally in the neocortical regions, hippocampus, middle and posterior cingulate and in the caudate. In the subgroup of patients and controls seropositive to T. gondii the reduction of GM was located in the same regions as in the whole sample and consisted of 11660 over-threshold voxels (p£0.05, FWR corrected). The differences between T. gondii negative patients and controls consisted only of 289 voxels in temporal and mediotemporal regions.

Discussion

Our study is the first to document that latent toxoplasmosis reduces GM in schizophrenia but not in controls. The higher morphological vulnerability of patients but not controls to T. gondii infection represents an indirect support for the epidemiological evidence of the role of latent toxoplasmosis in schizophrenia.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants 1M0517.

Type
S32-03
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2011
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