Memory performance associates with serotonin transporter in midbrain and pons in healthy subjects

• Published in: Hellenic journal of nuclear medicine Vol. 22; no. 3; p. 194
• Main Authors: Pak, Kyoungjune, Shin, Seunghyeon, Kim, Keunyoung, Seok, Ju Won, Kim, Seong Jang, Kim, In Joo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Greece 01.09.2019
• Subjects: Female; Healthy Volunteers; Humans; Male; Memory; Mesencephalon - diagnostic imaging; Mesencephalon - metabolism; Mesencephalon - physiology; Middle Aged; Pons - diagnostic imaging; Pons - metabolism; Pons - physiology; Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins - metabolism; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; Tropanes
• ISSN: 1790-5427
• DOI: 10.1967/s002449911055

We aimed to evaluate the association between the availability of serotonin transporter (SERT) measured by ioflupane-DaTSCAN ( I-FP-CIT) and imaged by single photon emission tomography (SPET) and memory function in healthy subjects. Specific binding of I-FP-CIT indicating SERT was achieved using a region of interest analysis. Spherical volumes of interest for midbrain and pons were defined. The cerebellum was chosen as a reference region. Specific binding ratios (SBR) in midbrain and pons representing SERT availability were measured as follows: SBR=(target-cerebellum)/cerebellum. A hundred and eighty-one healthy subjects (117 male, 64 female) were included in this study. Specific binding ratios of both midbrain (P=0.025) and pons (P=0.006) of males was higher than that of females. None of the SBR showed a correlation with age both in males: (midbrain; P=0.736, pons; P=0.875) and in females (midbrain; P=0.294, pons; P=0.170). In all our cases, SERT availability of midbrain correlated positively with total recall score (rho=0.159, P=0.033), and delayed recall score (rho=0.149, P=0.046). In females, the correlation between SERT availability in midbrain and delayed recall score was significant (rho=0.320, P=0.010), however, not in males (rho=0.112, P=0.229). In conclusion, we demonstrated that SERT availability was associated with memory function in healthy females from the PPMI database. Further studies are needed to clarify underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon.