Schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BPD) patients show a downregulation of GAD67, reelin (RELN), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and other genes expressed in telencephalic GABAergic and glutamatergic neurons.
A number of neuropsychiatric disorders including autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, Alzheimer's disease and lissencephaly share a common feature of abnormal Reelin expression in the brain.
We evaluated whether an RELN gene variant, rs362719, which has been associated with increased susceptibility to bipolar disorder, is also associated with susceptibility to schizophrenia.
Previous results have revealed that reelin levels are decreased in post-mortem hippocampal tissue from patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression, and also in an animal model of depression.
Recent studies have shown that Reelin, an extracellular protein that is critical for neuronal development, is reduced in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients.
We employed SDS-PAGE and Western blotting to measure levels of GAD isomers 65 and 67 kDa and Reelin isoforms 410-, 330- and 180-kDa proteins as well as beta-actin in cerebellum of subjects with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression vs. controls (N = 15 per group).
In addition, reelin protein in the molecular layer of the dentate gyrus was decreased in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression at the trend level of statistical significance (P=0.065).
We present new immunocytochemical evidence showing reductions in Reelin expression in hippocampus of subjects with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression and confirm recent reports documenting a similar deficit involving Reelin expression in brains of subjects with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.