Chromatin textural parameters of blood neutrophils are associated with stress levels in patients with recurrent depressive disorder

Abstract

Introduction/Objective During the past 20 years, there have been numerous attempts to design and apply a simple, affordable blood analysis tool for diagnostic and prognostic purposes in psychiatry. In this article we demonstrate that some mathematical parameters of chromatin organization and distribution in blood neutrophil granulocytes are related to stress levels in patients diagnosed with recurrent depressive disorder (RDD). Methods The study was performed on 50 RDD participants who were asked to complete Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS-21). Peripheral blood samples were obtained from all the participants, smeared on glass slides and stained using a modification of Giemsa method. A total of 500 representative chromatin structures (10 per patient) of neutrophil granulocytes were evaluated using textural analysis with the application of gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) method. Parameters such as angular second moment (indicator of textural uniformity), inverse difference moment (textural homogeneity), and textural sum variance were calculated. Results The results indicate that there is a statistically highly significant correlation (p < 0.01) between certain chromatin GLCM parameters such as inverse difference moment, and DASS-21 stress score. There was also a significant difference (p < 0.05) in some chromatin GLCM parameters in patients diagnosed with RDD with psychotic features, when compared to the ones without psychosis. Conclusion These findings suggest that in the future, chromatin GLCM features might have a certain predictive value for some clinical features of recurrent depressive disorder.

Association between Chromatin Structural Organization of Peripheral Blood Neutrophils and Self-Perceived Mental Stress: Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix Analysis

“…The current research is the continuation of our previously published study on the association between neutrophil chromatin textural features with psychological stress in patients with recurrent depressive disorder (Pantic et al, 2019). In that study, we performed GLCM analysis of chromatin structures of neutrophil granulocytes stained by applying a conventional Giemsa method.…”

“…This tool has so far shown good psychometric properties such as validity and reliability both in mentally healthy population samples and in psychiatric patients. The scale was successfully used in the previous research on depression in clinical conditions (Pantic et al, 2019). For the details on DASS-21, the reader is referred to the previously published works (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995; Beaufort et al, 2017; Scholten et al, 2017; Lee, 2019).…”

“…Dimensions of the micrographs were 3,584 (width) × 2,748 (height) resolution units, with a bit depth of 24. In this research, for the first time, we use a specific approach based on image acquisition settings that, to the best of our knowledge, greatly increases micrograph complexity, level of detail, and heterogeneity, providing more data for GLCM, when compared with the approach used previously (Pantic et al, 2019). These settings include color temperature with the value of 4,828, tint of 1,362, hue with the value of 24, saturation of 78, and brightness of 64.…”

“…In our previously published work, we demonstrated that GLCM can be used as a pattern recognition biosensor for changes in lymphocyte chromatin architecture induced by oxidopamine (Pantic et al, 2016 a ). Also, our previous research has shown that, in patients with recurrent depressive disorder, chromatin textural parameters of blood neutrophil granulocytes may be linked with levels of mental distress (Pantic et al, 2019). GLCM parameters of neutrophil chromatin, such as ASM and IDM, were strongly associated with the intensity of self-perceived mental stress in these subjects.…”

“…Also in the field of neuroscience, GLCM analysis can be used to assess the consequences of trauma to the cerebral cortex, as well as certain physiological and morphological characteristics of the brain white matter (Pantic et al, 2014; Pantic et al, 2015). Finally, the assessment of chromatin and cellular textural patterns has proved to be potentially useful in morphological analysis of immune cells such as peripheral blood lymphocytes and neutrophil granulocytes (Pantic et al, 2016 a ; Pantic et al, 2019).…”