Author:

Keywords:

11 Medical and Health Sciences, 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, Psychiatry, 3202 Clinical sciences

Abstract:

An altered membrane phospholipid (PL) composition and turn-over is described in patients with schizophrenia, in particular in early stages of the disorder. Little is known about the distribution of PL in the red blood cell (RBC) membrane in chronic medicated patients, in particular phosphatidyl ethanolamine (PE), which is the main reservoir for n-3, n-6 fatty acids (FA). RBC membranes from chronic medicated patients with schizophrenia (n=75) and healthy control (HC, n=40) were isolated from fresh blood samples. After extraction, PL as well as their constitutive FA and total membrane cholesterol were analysed using LC-MS/MS method. The distribution between the inner and outer membrane leaflet of Lyso PE (an indicator of membrane PL turnover) was measured using trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid labelling. A significant difference was found in the Lyso PE distribution at the RBC membrane level between patients and HC. The externally located Lyso PE from chronic patients was significantly less important in comparison to HC (25% vs 31% respectively, p=0.03). A significant (p=0.003) and specific decrease in n-3 and n-6 FA from the external Lyso PE was also found. The presented results shed some new light into the well described increased membrane phospholipid turn-over in patients with schizophrenia. Our results are supporting the increased turn-over of PE attested by the decrease of the externally located Lyso PE percentage. In addition, the specific decrease in n-3/n-6 FA from the externally located lyso PE is consistent with an increased PLA2 activity reported in the scientific literature. The described abnormalities are present in chronically treated patients, indicative of a trait marker not impacted by the corrective effect of antipsychotics, at least in a subgroup of schizophrenia patients