Short telomeres in patients with chronic schizophrenia who show a poor response to treatment.
OBJECTIVE
Telomere shortening has been observed in many human diseases, including atherosclerosis, cancer, aging syndromes, Alzheimer disease and vascular dementia. The present study aimed to investigate the mean telomere lengths of patients with schizophrenia.


METHODS
We analyzed the lengths of telomeric DNA, comparing 2 groups of patients with schizophrenia (34 good responders and 34 poor responders). A control group of 76 healthy volunteers was also included. Blood samples were obtained, and telomere length was measured by Southern blot analysis on the mean length of terminal restriction fragment (TRF).


RESULTS
Compared with the control group, a significant amount of telomere shortening was found in peripheral blood leukocytes from patients with schizophrenia who experienced poor response to antipsychotics (p < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Shortened telomere length in chronic schizophrenia may be a trait marker caused by oxidative stress, and the ensuing cellular dysfunction may be a factor contributing to the progressive deterioration in treatment-resistant schizophrenia.
Yu
Wu-Yang
WY
Department of Biological Sciences, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. clcho@mail.nsysu.edu.tw
Chang
Hsueh-Wen
HW
Lin
Ching-Hua
CH
Cho
Chung-Lung
CL
D000328:Adult; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004351:Drug Resistance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism*; D016615:Telomere / Q000378:metabolism*