Abstract
The central neurotransmitter serotonin plays a major role in a number of neuropsychiatric disorders. However, results from post-mortem and in vivo neuroimaging studies of the influence of age on the number of presynaptic serotonin transporters (SERT) are controversial. To provide further evidence of relevance for this ongoing discussion, SERT were imaged in 22 persons without neuropsychiatric impairment using [123I]2β-carbomethoxy-3β-(iodophenyl)tropane ([123I]β-CIT) and high-resolution single-photon emission tomography (SPET). The SPET analysis method was based on magnetic resonance image co-registration in order to quantify SERT with acceptable inter- and intra-observer variability. Using this technique, we found a significant age-related decline in the thalamic/hypothalamic and midbrain/upper brainstem SERT density, which was more pronounced than that previously reported in the literature. From these results we conclude that age-related changes in SERT density need to be considered in future clinical studies.
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Acknowledgements
The results of this study were presented in part at the Annual Meeting of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine in Naples (Italy) in August 2001 and at the Annual Meeting of the German Society of Nuclear Medicine in Freiburg (Germany) in April 2002.
We are grateful to Dietlind Sorger and Ingrid Kämpfer for preparation of the radiopharmaceutical and to Philipp T. Meyer for performing the phantom studies. Furthermore, the authors are indebted to Stan Theophilou for his critical corrections.
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Hesse, S., Barthel, H., Murai, T. et al. Is correction for age necessary in neuroimaging studies of the central serotonin transporter?. Eur J Nucl Med 30, 427–430 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-002-1044-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-002-1044-6