Association of central serotonin transporter availability and body mass index in healthy Europeans

Serotonin-mediated mechanisms,inparticularviatheserotonintransporter(SERT),arethought
to haveaneffectonfoodintakeandplayanimportantroleinthepathophysiologyofobesity.
However,imagingstudiesthatexaminedthecorrelationbetweenbodymassindex(BMI)and
SERTaresparseandprovidedcontradictoryresults.Theaimofthisstudywastofurthertestthe
association betweenSERTandBMIinalargecohortofhealthysubjects. Methods: 127subjects
of theENCDATdatabase(58females,age52718 years,range20-83, BMI25.273.8 kg/m2,
range 18.2-41.1) wereanalysedusingregion-of-interest(ROI)andvoxel-basedapproachesto
calculate [123I]FP-CIT specific-to-nonspecific bindingratios(SBR)inthehypothalamus/thalamus
and midbrain/brainstemasSERT-specific targetregions. Results: Inthevoxel-basedanalysis,
SERTavailabilityandBMIwerepositivelyassociatedinthethalamus,butnotinthemidbrain.
In theROI-analysis,theinteractionbetweengenderandBMIshowedatrendwithhigher
correlation coefficient formeninthemidbrainalbeitnotsignificant (0.033SBRm2/kg, p=0.1).
Conclusions: ThedataareinagreementwithpreviousPET findings ofanalteredcentral
serotonergic tonedependingonBMI,asaprobablepathophysiologicmechanisminobesity,and
should encouragefurtherclinicalstudiesinobesitytargetingtheserotonergicsystem.