Previous studies of brain structure in anorexia nervosa (AN) have reported reduced gray matter in underweight patients, which largely normalizes upon weight gain. One underlying biological mechanism may be glial cell alterations related to low-grade inflammation. Here, we investigated relationships between brain structure as measured by magnetic resonance imaging and serum concentrations of two pro-inflammatory cytokines (interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha) cross-sectionally in 82 underweight adolescent and young adult female patients (mean age 16.8 years; 59 of whom were observed longitudinally after short-term weight restoration; mean duration 2.8 months), 20 individuals long-term weight-recovered from AN (mean age 22.7 years) and 105 healthy control (HC) participants (mean age 17.2 years). We measured cortical thickness, subcortical volumes and local gyrification index, a measure of cortical folding. In contrast to most previous studies of cytokine concentrations in AN, we found no cross-sectional group differences (interleukin-6: p = 0.193, tumor necrosis factor alpha: p = 0.057) or longitudinal changes following weight restoration (interleukin-6: p = 0.201, tumor necrosis factor alpha: p = 0.772). As expected, widespread gray matter reductions (cortical thickness, subcortical volumes, cortical folding) were observed in underweight patients with AN compared to HC. However, we found no evidence of associations between cytokine concentrations and structural brain measures in any participant group. Furthermore, longitudinal changes in cytokine concentrations were unrelated to changes in gray matter. In conclusion, we did not identify any association between (sub-)inflammatory processes and structural brain changes in AN. Future studies are needed to elucidate which other factors besides nutritional status may contribute to brain morphological alterations.

先前对神经性厌食症（AN）大脑结构的研究报告称，体重不足的患者灰质减少，体重增加后灰质基本上恢复正常。一种潜在的生物学机制可能是与低度炎症相关的神经胶质细胞改变。在这里，我们对 82 名体重不足的青少年和年轻成年女性患者（平均年龄 16.8 岁）进行了横断面调查，通过磁共振成像测量大脑结构与两种促炎细胞因子（白细胞介素 6 和肿瘤坏死因子 α）血清浓度之间的关系。 ；其中 59 名在短期体重恢复后进行纵向观察；平均持续时间 2.8 个月），20 名从 AN 中长期体重恢复的个体（平均年龄 22.7 岁）和 105 名健康对照（HC）参与者（平均年龄 17.2 岁） 。我们测量了皮质厚度、皮质下体积和局部回旋指数（皮质折叠的度量）。与之前大多数关于 AN 中细胞因子浓度的研究相比，我们发现没有横截面组间差异（白细胞介素 6：p  = 0.193，肿瘤坏死因子 α：p  = 0.057）或体重恢复后的纵向变化（白细胞介素 6：p  = 0.201，肿瘤坏死因子α：p  = 0.772）。正如预期的那样，与 HC 患者相比，体重不足的 AN 患者观察到广泛的灰质减少（皮质厚度、皮质下体积、皮质折叠）。然而，我们没有发现任何参与者组中细胞因子浓度与大脑结构测量之间存在关联的证据。此外，细胞因子浓度的纵向变化与灰质的变化无关。总之，我们没有发现 AN 中（亚）炎症过程与大脑结构变化之间存在任何关联。未来的研究需要阐明除了营养状况之外还有哪些其他因素可能导致大脑形态的改变。