title: Reduced number of peripheral natural killer cells in schizophrenia but not in bipolar disorder.
abstract: Overwhelming evidence indicates that subthreshold inflammatory state might be implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BPD). It has been reported that both groups of patients might be characterized by abnormal lymphocyte counts. However, little is known about alterations in lymphocyte proportions that may differentiate SCZ and BPD patients. Therefore, in this study we investigated blood cell proportions quantified by means of microarray expression deconvolution using publicly available data from SCZ and BPD patients. We found significantly lower counts of natural killer (NK) cells in drug-naïve and medicated SCZ patients compared to healthy controls across all datasets. In one dataset from SCZ patients, there were no significant differences in the number of NK cells between acutely relapsed and remitted SCZ patients. No significant difference in the number of NK cells between BPD patients and healthy controls was observed in all datasets. Our results indicate that SCZ patients, but not BPD patients, might be characterized by reduced counts of NK cells. Future studies looking at lymphocyte counts in SCZ should combine the analysis of data obtained using computational deconvolution and flow cytometry techniques.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Wroclaw Medical University, 1 Marcinkowski Street, 50-368 Wroclaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Paweł
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Karpiński
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Wroclaw Medical University, 10 Pasteur Street, 50-367 Wroclaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Dorota
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Frydecka
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Wroclaw Medical University, 1 Marcinkowski Street, 50-368 Wroclaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Maria M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Sąsiadek
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Wroclaw Medical University, 1 Marcinkowski Street, 50-368 Wroclaw, Poland; Department of Psychiatry, Wroclaw Medical University, 10 Pasteur Street, 50-367 Wroclaw, Poland. Electronic address: mblazej@interia.eu.
authors.forename: Błażej
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Misiak
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000276:immunology; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D059467:Transcriptome
keywords: Bipolar disorder; Computational deconvolution; Immunity; Inflammation; Lymphocytes; NK cells; Schizophrenia