title: Early apoptosis in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with bipolar disorder.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The pathophysiology of bipolar disorder (BD) includes several systemic alterations, such as inflammatory markers, oxidative stress, and DNA damage. Most of these parameters may be related to dysfunctions in cellular resilience mechanisms reported in patients, such as endoplasmic reticulum stress and mitochondrial damage. As a consequence, these impairments can ultimately lead to cell death. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess cell death and viability in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients with BD and controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ten euthymic patients with BD type I and seven age- and sex-matched healthy controls were recruited and had peripheral blood collected by venipuncture in heparine tubes. PBMCs were isolated from total blood, followed by measurement of cell viability by trypan blue exclusion, and apoptosis and necrosis by anexin V/propidium iodide (PI) staining.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cell viability did not significantly differ between groups, as well as the percentage of cells in necrosis or in late apoptosis/necrosis. However, the percentage of cells in early apoptosis was higher in patients when compared with controls (p=0.002).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is a preliminary study with relatively small sample size.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The systemic toxicity along with dysfunctional cell resilience mechanisms reported in patients with BD may be inducing apoptosis in PBMCs. A deeper look into the clinical relevance of such findings is warranted.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular Psychiatry, Centro de Pesquisas Experimentais, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, and INCT for Translational Medicine, Brazil; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Biológicas: Bioquímica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, UFRGS, Brazil. Electronic address: gabrielrfries@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Gabriel Rodrigo
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Fries
authors.forename: Mirela Paiva
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Vasconcelos-Moreno
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gubert
authors.forename: Barbara Tietböhl Martins Quadros Dos
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: André Luiz Schuh Teixeira
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: da Rosa
authors.forename: Bárbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Eisele
authors.forename: Juliana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sartori
authors.forename: Bianca
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pfaffenseller
authors.forename: Flávio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kapczinski
authors.forename: Márcia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kauer-Sant'anna
mesh_terms: D017209:Apoptosis; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000166:cytology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
keywords: Apoptosis; Bipolar disorder; Cell viability; PBMCs