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DNA fragmentation decreased in schizophrenia but not bipolar disorder
Francine M Benes1, John Walsh, Sujoy Bhattacharyya
1Laboratories for Structural Neuroscience, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA 02478, USA. benesf@mclean.harvard.edu
Background:
Apoptosis is thought to play a role in neuronal pathology in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Methods:
To test this hypothesis, the Klenow method for in situ end-labeling of single-stranded DNA breaks was applied to anterior cingulate cortex from 18 healthy controls, 18 schizophrenic subjects, and 10 bipolar subjects.
Results:
An unexpected reduction (71%) in Klenow-positive nuclei was found in schizophrenic but not in bipolar cortexes.
Conclusions:
To our knowledge to date, this is the first demonstration that there is much less DNA fragmentation in individuals with schizophrenia than in healthy controls and bipolar subjects, which raises a key question as to whether this alteration represents an adaptive or nonadaptive change in the regulation of intracellular signaling and mitochondrial oxidative pathways associated with apoptosis.