[An ultrastructural study of the temporal lobe and peripheral blood in schizophrenic patients]

In spite of the human, social and economic impact of schizophrenia and to be considered a disease of organic origin by several evidences, there are relatively few studies about this disease using electron microscopic techniques.

For 23 years we made studies about the viral hypothesis of schizophrenia by means of this technique. We studied limbic structure samples from young adult s dead schizophrenic patients, from fetuses of schizophrenic mothers and from chicken embryos experimentally inoculated with cerebrospinal fluid from schizophrenic patients. In the last ten years we have performed studies of blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples from young schizophrenic patients. We have found some alterations with the same characteristic to those observed in the central nervous system, which are compatible with: a) the viral hypothesis and b) with herpes simplex hominis type I virus, when immuno electronmicroscopic techniques were made.

The results obtained in this work can constitute a new element favoring the possible viral etiology of this disease.