Decreased serum levels of glial markers and their relation with clinical parameters in patients with schizophrenia

Abstract

Objective: The neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia suggests that alterations of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) functions may play a role in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. However, there is limited information about the relationship of these molecules with the clinical features of schizophrenia. In this study, it was aimed to compare patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls in terms of serum GFAP and GDNF levels and to investigate the effects of clinical parameters on serum levels of molecules in patients with schizophrenia. Method: 37 patients with schizophrenia followed in the psychosis unit and 37 age- and sex-matched healthy controls without a history of psychiatric disease were recruited in study. The patients evaluated through the Turkish version of positive and negative syndrome scale. On the other hand, sociodemographic question form was applied to both the patients and the healthy controls. Results: Serum GDNF and GFAP levels of patients with schizophrenia were significantly lower than those of healthy controls. Furthermore, serum GDNF levels were negatively correlated with general and negative syndrome scales (PANSS) in these patients. Conclusion: It has been observed that there is a relationship between PANSS and changes in the GDNF levels of schizophrenia patients. However, larger clinical studies in which these markers are also measured in cerebrospinal fluid are needed to understand the biological mechanisms underlying these associations and to understand whether glial markers could be useful as biomarkers for the diagnosis of schizophrenia