Schizophrenia patient-derived olfactory neurosphere-derived cells do not respond to extracellular reelin

Reelin expression is reduced in various regions in the post-mortem brain of schizophrenia patients but the exact role of reelin function in the neurobiology of schizophrenia remains elusive. Absence of reelin in knockout mouse causes inverted lamination of the neocortex due to aberrant neuronal migration. The aim of this study was to utilize patient-derived olfactory neurosphere-derived (ONS) cells to investigate whether extracellular reelin alters cell motility in schizophrenia patient-derived cells. ONS cells from nine patients were compared with cells from nine matched healthy controls. Automated high-throughput imaging and analysis were used to track motility of individual living cells on reelin-coated surfaces produced from reelin secreted into the medium by HEK293FT cells transfected with the full-length reelin plasmid pCrl. Automated assays were used to quantify intracellular cytoskeleton composition, cell morphology, and focal adhesions. Expression of reelin and components of the reelin signaling pathway were measured by western blot and flow cytometry. Reelin inhibited the motility of control cells but not patient cells, and increased the number and size of focal adhesions in control cells but not patient cells. Patient and control cells expressed similar levels of the reelin receptors and the reelin signaling protein, Dab1, but patient cells expressed less reelin. Patient cells were smaller than control cells and had less actin and acetylated α-tubulin, components of the cytoskeleton. These findings are the first direct evidence that cellular responses to reelin are impaired in schizophrenia and are consistent with the role of reelin in cytoarchitectural deficits observed in schizophrenia patient brains.