title: Cell-type specific alterations of cortical interneurons in schizophrenic patients.
abstract: In the human brain, cortical GABAergic interneurons represent an important population of local circuit neurons responsible for the intrinsic modulation of neuronal information and have been supposed to be involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. We conducted a quantitative study on the differentiated three-dimensional morphological structure of two types of parvalbumin-immunoreactive interneurons in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) of schizophrenic patients versus controls. While type A interneurons ('small bipolar cells') showed a significant reduction of their soma size in schizophrenics, type B interneurons ('small multipolar cells') of schizophrenic patients exhibited a marked decrease in the extent of their dendritic system. These results further support the assumption of a considerable significance of the ACC, an important limbic relay centre, for the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenic psychoses.
authors.affiliation: University Hospital of Clinical Psychiatry Bern, Bolligenstrasse 111, CH-3000 Bern 60, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kalus
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bondzio
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Federspiel
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zuschratter
mesh_terms: D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D003712:Dendrites / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007395:Interneurons / Q000145:classification / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000473:pathology*; D012562:Schizophrenia, Disorganized / Q000473:pathology; D012563:Schizophrenia, Paranoid / Q000473:pathology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric