Abstract
The authors investigated relations between obesity, age, and sex and the availabilities of striatal dopamine transporter (DAT) and extrastriatal serotonin transporter (SERT) by 123I-FP-CIT single-photon emission computed tomography. The study population consisted of 192 healthy controls with screening 123I-FP-CIT scans. Specific bindings of 123I-FP-CIT to DAT and SERT were calculated using regions of interest. Specific binding ratios (SBRs) of DAT and SERT except pons (r = 0.2217, p = 0.0026), were not correlated with body mass index (BMI). SBRs of midbrains correlated negatively with the BMIs of obese subjects (r = −0.3126, p = 0.0496), and positively with the those of non-obese subjects (r = 0.2327, p = 0.0053). SBRs of caudate nucleus (r = −0.3175, p < 0.0001), striatum (r = −0.226, p = 0.0022), and thalamus (r = −0.1978, p = 0.0074) reduced with age, and SERT availability was higher in males. However, DAT availability was similar in males and females. In conclusion, obesity has an effect on midbrain SERT availability. In addition, BMI was correlated with pontine SERT availability but not with striatal DAT availability. SERT availability was higher in males, but DAT availability showed no gender predilection.
Highlights
Dopamine and serotonin are neurotransmitters involved in the regulation of food intake and body weight[11,12]
Obesity has an effect on midbrain serotonin transporter (SERT) availability
Striatal dopamine transporter (DAT) availability was not correlated with body mass index (BMI), but pontine SERT availability was found to be positively correlated with BMI
Summary
Dopamine and serotonin are neurotransmitters involved in the regulation of food intake and body weight[11,12]. Previous studies have used 123I-FP-CIT to investigate the role of dopamine transporter (DAT) in striatum[13] and of serotonin transporter (SERT) in midbrain[14], pons[15], thalamus[15], and hypothalamus. 123I-FP-CIT shows high affinity for DAT, and slightly less affinity for SERT17. As DAT and SERT display nonoverlapping distributions in subcortical structures14, 123I-FP-CIT enables the co-evaluations of DAT and SERT distributions in a single scan[15]. The aim of this study was to explore the relations between obesity, age, and sex and the availabilities of striatal DAT and extrastriatal SERT as determined by 123I-FP-CIT single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) using data obtained from the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI)
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