Stem cells obtained from patients with schizophrenia carry a genetic mutation that alters the ratio of the different type of nerve cells they produce, according to a new study by researchers in Japan. The findings…suggest that abnormal neural differentiation may contribute to the disease, such that fewer neurons and more non-neuronal cells are generated during the earliest stages of brain development.
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One of the best characterised mutations associated with the disease is a microdeletion on chromosome 22…Manabu Toyoshima of the RIKEN Brain Science Institute and his colleagues obtained skin cells from two female schizophrenic patients diagnosed with the chromosome 22 deletion and two healthy individuals, then reprogrammed them to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)….
Toyoshima and his colleagues immediately noticed that the neurospheres derived from iPSCs obtained from the schizophrenic patients were significantly smaller than those formed from iPSCs from the two healthy controls.
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This revealed abnormal differentiation in the neurospheres derived from the schizophrenic patients. They formed significantly fewer neurons, and significantly more astrocytes, than the neurospheres derived from the iPSCs of the healthy controls.
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