Reduced Brain Iron and Striatal Hyperdopaminergia in Schizophrenia: A Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping MRI and PET Study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Neuroimaging studies have independently associated schizophrenia with low iron and elevated dopamine synthesis. While preclinical research demonstrates that midbrain iron deficiency leads to striatal hyperdopaminergia, this relationship has not been studied in schizophrenia. The authors conducted a case-control study to examine differences in tissue magnetic susceptibility, a marker of brain iron, and correlated these with striatal dopamine synthesis capacity.

Methods

Magnetic susceptibility in the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area (SN-VTA) was measured using quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) MRI in 159 participants (control subjects, N=80; early-course schizophrenia, N=79, including patients who were antipsychotic-naïve or antipsychotic-free). Be

SUBMITTER: Vano LJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7618194 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature