Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany.
World J Biol Psychiatry. 2011 Apr;12(3):201-15. doi: 10.3109/15622975.2010.530690. Epub 2010 Nov 22.
The role of neuroinflammation in schizophrenia has been an issue for long time. There are reports supporting the hypothesis of ongoing inflammation and others denying it. This may be partly ascribed to the origin of the materials (CSF, blood, brain tissue) or to the genes selected for the respective studies. Moreover, in some locations, inflammatory genes may be up-regulated, others may be down-regulated.
Genome-wide microarrays have been used for expression profiling in post-mortem brains of schizophrenia patients. Array data have been analyzed by gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and further confirmed with selected genes by real-time PCR.
In Brodman Area 22 of left superior temporal cortex, at least 70 genes (19%) out of 369 down-regulated genes (P < 0.05) belonged to the immune system. 23 from those 70 genes were randomly selected for real-time PCR. Six reached significance level at P < 0.05.
The present data support a brain-specific view of the role immune-modulatory genes may play in the left superior temporal cortex in schizophrenia, because immune functions in the patients are not disturbed. In keeping with comparable, previous studies supporting the notion that schizophrenia is a disease of the synapse, we hypothesize that dysregulation of immune-related genes modifies synaptic functions and stability in this region.
神经炎症在精神分裂症中的作用由来已久。有研究支持持续炎症的假说，也有研究否认这一假说。这可能部分归因于研究中使用的材料来源（CSF、血液、脑组织）或选择的基因。此外，在某些部位，炎症基因可能上调，而其他基因可能下调。
使用全基因组微阵列对精神分裂症患者死后大脑进行表达谱分析。通过基因集富集分析（GSEA）对数组数据进行分析，并通过实时 PCR 对选定基因进一步进行确认。
在左侧颞上回 Brodman 区 22 中，下调基因 369 个（P<0.05）中至少有 70 个（19%）属于免疫系统。从这 70 个基因中随机选择了 23 个进行实时 PCR。其中 6 个达到了 P<0.05 的显著水平。
本研究数据支持免疫调节基因在精神分裂症左侧颞上回中可能发挥特定脑区作用的观点，因为患者的免疫功能没有受到干扰。与支持精神分裂症是突触疾病的类似先前研究一致，我们假设免疫相关基因的失调改变了该区域的突触功能和稳定性。
