| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
MACHII Takashi Osaka University Medical School, Associate Professor, 医学部, 助教授 (50124780)
MIZUKI Masao Osaka University Medical School, Assistant Professor, 医学部, 助手 (80283761)
WATANABE Yasuyoshi Osaka Bioscience Institute, Director, 第3部門, 部長(研究職) (40144399)
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| Research Abstract |
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is an operational concept to clarify the unknown etiology of the syndrome characterized by chronic fatigue. Recently, we demonstrated that most CFS patients had serum acetylcarnitine (ACC) deficiency, and that serum ACC has a very important physiological role for the brain, that is, conveying an acetyl moiety into the brain. To clarify whether or not the abnormality of regional cerebral ACC metabolism (rCMRacetylcar) is associated with pathology of CFS, we studied both the regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and rCMRacetylcar in 8 CFS patients and 8 age-matched controls using 11 C-labeled ACC and positron emission tomography scans. A high ACC uptake was found in the cerebral oortex, and it was higher in the gray matter than in the white matter. From group-to-group comparisons, CFS group had a lot of brain regions where rCBF decreases, especially in anterior cingulate, left lateral cortices and some basal ganglia. On the contraiy, the regions in which showed lower rCMRacetylcar were restricted, and an apparent deficiency was found only in Brodmann's area 9 and 24, where is associated with autonomic, affective and motivational behaviors. The metabolic analysis suggested that an acetyl moiety taken into the cerebral cortex might be used for biosynthesis of an important neurometabolic substances, and the hypometabolism of ACC in Brodmann's area 9 and 24 might be a key feature of CFS, associating with the neuro-psychiatric symptoms.
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