ABNORMAL EXPRESSION OF NEURAL CELL ADHESION
MOLECULE IN SCHIZOPHRENIA
Marquis P.
Vawter* and William J. Freed. NIDA Addiction Research Center,
Baltimore, MD
Schizophrenia is a
neuropsychiatric disorder of unclear etiology associated with
subtle changes in brain morphology. The neural cell adhesion
molecule (N-CAM) is involved in diverse morphoregulatory
events and is developmentally expressed in the brain. We have
reported that soluble N-CAM 105-115 kDa is increased in the
hippocampus of patients with schizophrenia above controls and
bipolar disorder. We found increased N-CAM 105-115 kDa also
in the prefrontal cortex of patients with schizophrenia as
compared to controls. Large increases in N-CAM concentration
have also been reported in studies of CSF obtained from long
term patients with schizophrenia. However, CSF samples from
neuroleptic-naïve first episode patients with schizophrenia
demonstrated normal concentrations of N-CAM. First episode
patients that were briefly treated with neuroleptics showed a
decrease in CSF N-CAM concentrations. Further, gender
differences could account for the observed increases in
N-CAM, as male patients show relatively larger N-CAM
concentrations as compared to females. Thus, the variables
that have been shown to modulate human N-CAM 105-115 kDa
concentrations are: diagnosis, gender, and short-term
neuroleptic treatment.