The synaptic-vesicle-specific proteins rab3a and synaptophysin are reduced in thalamus and related cortical brain regions in schizophrenic brains

Two synaptic-vesicle proteins, rab3a and synaptophysin, have been studied on post-mortem brain tissues of schizophrenics and healthy controls. We found significantly reduced levels of rab3a in thalamus (p<0.001); for both proteins in gyrus cinguli and hippocampus (p<0.0001); for rab3a in frontal and parietal cortex (p<0.05); and no differences in temporal cortex or cerebellum in schizophrenics compared with controls. Reduced synaptic density may be a prominent feature of the molecular neuropathology of schizophrenia.

[1]  T. Südhof,et al.  Synaptic Vesicle Traffic: Rush Hour in the Nerve Terminal , 1993, Journal of neurochemistry.

[2]  T. Südhof,et al.  Membrane fusion machinery: Insights from synaptic proteins , 1993, Cell.

[3]  N. Perrone-Bizzozero,et al.  Levels of the growth-associated protein GAP-43 are selectively increased in association cortices in schizophrenia. , 1996, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[4]  M S Buchsbaum,et al.  PET and MRI of the thalamus in never-medicated patients with schizophrenia. , 1996, The American journal of psychiatry.

[5]  B. Bogerts,et al.  Recent advances in the neuropathology of schizophrenia. , 1993, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[6]  B. Bogerts,et al.  Limbic pathology in schizophrenia: The entorhinal region—a morphometric study , 1988, Biological Psychiatry.

[7]  R. Moore,et al.  Synaptogenesis in the rat suprachiasmatic nucleus demonstrated by electron microscopy and synapsin I immunoreactivity , 1989, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[8]  Paul J. Harrison,et al.  Decreased synaptophysin in the medial temporal lobe in schizophrenia demonstrated using immunoautoradiography , 1995, Neuroscience.

[9]  B. Pakkenberg,et al.  Post-mortem Study of Chronic Schizophrenic Brains , 1987, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[10]  F. Benes,et al.  An analysis of the arrangement of neurons in the cingulate cortex of schizophrenic patients. , 1987, Archives of general psychiatry.

[11]  J. Lieberman,et al.  Neurochemistry and neuroendocrinology of schizophrenia: a selective review. , 1993, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[12]  Markus Heilig,et al.  Synaptic degeneration in thalamus in schizophrenia , 1996, The Lancet.

[13]  F. Benes,et al.  Quantitative cytoarchitectural studies of the cerebral cortex of schizophrenics. , 1986, Archives of general psychiatry.

[14]  T. Südhof,et al.  rab3 is a small GTP-binding protein exclusively localized to synaptic vesicles. , 1990, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[15]  K. Blennow,et al.  Neurochemical Dissection of Synaptic Pathology in Alzheimer's Disease , 1998, International Psychogeriatrics.

[16]  F. Benes,et al.  Deficits in small interneurons in prefrontal and cingulate cortices of schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients. , 1991, Archives of general psychiatry.

[17]  Paul J. Harrison,et al.  Altered synaptophysin expression as a marker of synaptic pathology in schizophrenia , 1995, Neuroscience.

[18]  B. Winblad,et al.  Prevalence of dementia disorders in institutionalized Swedish old people THE WORK LOAD IMPOSED BY CARING FOR THESE PATIENTS , 1981, Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica.

[19]  D. Weinberger,et al.  From neuropathology to neurodevelopment , 1995, The Lancet.

[20]  P. Greengard,et al.  A 38,000-dalton membrane protein (p38) present in synaptic vesicles. , 1985, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[21]  J. Ehrhardt,et al.  Thalamic abnormalities in schizophrenia visualized through magnetic resonance image averaging. , 1994, Science.