Cultured skin fibroblasts in schizophrenia: quantitative two-dimensional electrophoresis

Recent developments in the standardization and commercial availability of quantitative high resolution two-dimensional electrophoresis make feasible the systematic search for protein alterations characteristic of psychiatric disorders. To avoid the effects of such variables as drug intake or diet on quantitative protein makeup that might obscure its relationship to diagnosis, the investigators studied cultured fibroblasts derived from the skin biopsies of psychiatric patients. Although the method was able to resolve human fibroblast protein mixtures into 1,125 spots, no significant deviation in the quantitation of any individual spot was found to characterize the fibroblasts of patients with schizophrenia.