Regio entorhinalis in schizophrenia: more evidence for migrational disturbances and suggestions for a new biological hypothesis.
Recently we were able to replicate the original finding of migrational disturbances in the entorhinal cortex (ERC) of schizophrenic patients by measuring the distance of pre-alpha cell clusters to the pial surface. In order to replicate this finding, we performed a detailed analysis of the pre-alpha cell clusters in the ERC in post mortem brains of 22 schizophrenic patients and 15 control subjects. Cluster position relative to gray/white matter boundary were measured and normalized by the widths of the gray matter. In the ERC the pre-alpha cell clusters were situated significantly closer to the gray/white matter junction compared to normal controls (around 30 %, F = 9.52, p = 0.004). No specific effects of sex, age or region of investigation were found. In summary, this is another quantitative replication of pre-alpha cell cluster migrational disturbances in schizophrenia, which are possibly linked to neurobiological abnormalities, e.g. myeloarchitectonic changes. This supports the notion that developmental abnormalities are a core feature of schizophrenia and that the search for candidate genes has to include this aspect, too. However, it is very probable that vulnerability-associated changes - as outlined here - have to be distinguished from disease-related changes.
Kovalenko
S
S
Department of Psychiatry, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
Bergmann
A
A
Schneider-Axmann
T
T
Ovary
I
I
Majtenyi
K
K
Havas
L
L
Honer
W G
WG
Bogerts
B
B
Falkai
P
P
D000367:Age Factors; D001344:Autopsy; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002465:Cell Movement; D018728:Entorhinal Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000473:pathology*; D012737:Sex Factors