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Schizophrenia and the parvalbumin-containing class of cortical local circuit neurons
T U Woo1, J L Miller, D A Lewis
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that abnormalities in the parvalbumin-containing subclass of local circuit neurons contribute to altered gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) neurotransmission in the prefrontal cortex of schizophrenic subjects.
Method:
Profile counts and somal size measures were made of parvalbumin-immunoreactive neurons in areas 9, 46, and 17 from 15 matched pairs of schizophrenic and normal comparison subjects.
Results:
No differences in relative density, laminar distribution, or somal size of labeled neurons were found in any region.
Conclusions:
These findings suggest that altered GABA neurotransmission in schizophrenia is due to either abnormalities in other sub-populations of prefrontal cortical GABA neurons or abnormalities in the parvalbumin-containing subclass that could not be detected in the present study.