spine_quantification_all_images.xlsx

Background: Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a reversible neuropsychiatric syndrome associated with acute and chronic liver diseases. It includes a number of neuropsychiatric disturbances including impaired motor activity and coordination, intellectual and cognitive function.Results: In the present study, we used a rat early-stage HE model by triple portal vein ligation for 50 days To gain a better understanding of the effect of HE on the brain, artificial intelligence algorithms based on convolutional neuronal networks were implemented for the unbiased quantification of the brain images which were stained by Golgi-Cox immunohistochemistry. Differences in spine density across the accumbens shell, core, and dorsal striatum were observed in the sham group, whereas no structural differences were found in the HE group. These changes were accompanied by a striatal increase in spine density in the HE group. It was suggested that the differential changes in dendritic spines across brain structures may be the underlying cause of the early-stage cognitive changes observed in clinical findings in cirrhosis.Conclusions: We found that HE perturbs central nervous functions by altering the spine density of striatal neurons, which may be the underlying cause for the early cognitive impairments associated with HE.

背景：肝性脑病（Hepatic encephalopathy, HE）是一类与急性、慢性肝脏疾病相关的可逆性神经精神综合征，可引发运动活动与协调能力受损、智力及认知功能障碍等多种神经精神异常。结果：本研究构建了经三重门静脉结扎造模50天的大鼠早期HE模型。为深入解析HE对脑部的作用机制，本研究采用基于卷积神经网络（convolutional neuronal networks）的人工智能算法，对经高尔基-科克斯免疫组织化学染色（Golgi-Cox immunohistochemistry）的脑部图像开展无偏量化分析。结果显示，假手术组的伏隔核壳区、伏隔核核心区与背侧纹状体的棘突密度存在显著差异，而HE组未观察到此类结构差异；与此同时，HE组纹状体的棘突密度出现升高。研究提示，不同脑区树突棘的差异化改变，可能是肝硬化临床病例中观察到的早期认知变化的潜在诱因。结论：本研究发现，HE可通过改变纹状体神经元的棘突密度扰乱中枢神经系统功能，这或许是HE相关早期认知损伤的潜在致病机制。