Schizophrenia-associated neural growth factors in peripheral blood. A review.
In this paper we review the findings on neural growth factors in the peripheral blood of schizophrenia patients. The studies we review provide evidence for the fact that in schizophrenia the levels of growth factors in peripheral blood are disturbed. The most robust results (7 studies) are reported for S100B protein, which seems to be elevated in acute psychosis and in patients with predominant negative symptoms. We conclude that there are aberrant levels of growth factors in peripheral blood in schizophrenia patients, probably most notably in patients with negative symptoms. Large-scale longitudinal multivariate studies, investigating the levels of several growth factors at the same time might give insight in etiological processes and identify clinically useful subsets of patients within the heterogeneous schizophrenia sample.
Erasmus University Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, Post Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands. j.m.vanbeveren@erasmusmc.nl <j.m.vanbeveren@erasmusmc.nl>
Nico J M
NJ
van Beveren
Job-Jeroen
JJ
van der Spelt
Lieuwe
L
de Haan
Durk
D
Fekkes
D006801:Humans; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors / Q000097:blood*; D039781:PubMed; D064568:S100 Calcium Binding Protein beta Subunit; D009418:S100 Proteins / Q000097:blood; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000097:blood*
D009414:Nerve Growth Factors; D064568:S100 Calcium Binding Protein beta Subunit; D009418:S100 Proteins; C579160:S100B protein, human