Reduced Red Blood Cell Membrane Essential Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in First Episode Schizophrenia at Neuroleptic-Naive Baseline

Abstract

There is emerging evidence in schizophrenia of membrane abnormalities, primarily reductions in the essential omega-3 and omega-6 series of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). Because previous studies have largely been in chronic patients, it is not known whether these membrane abnormalities also occur early in illness. In the present study, red blood cell membrane fatty acid levels were determined by capillary gas chromatography from 24 neuroleptic-naive patients with first episode schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 31 age-matched normal controls. Relative to normal subjects, patients had significant reductions in total PUFA (-13%) but not in monounsaturated or saturated fatty acids. Specifically, significant reductions were found in arachidonic acid (-18%), docosapentaenoic acid (-36%), and docosahexaenoic acid (-26%) concentrations. These reductions were not related to age, gender, smoking status, or cotinine levels. These results confirm previous findings of membrane deficits in schizophrenia and show that significant PUFA reductions occur early in the illness, prior to initiation of treatment, raising the possibility that these deficits are trait related. The findings also suggest that membrane fatty acid losses are quite specific to the highly unsaturated fatty acids.

Is there a role forn-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in the regulation of mood and behaviour? A review of the evidence to date from epidemiological studies, clinical studies and intervention trials

“…(1994) (191) C schizophrenia EM, mol/ml Treated C v. controls (192) C schizophrenia (193) C schizophrenia Brain C v. controls with mental disorders (91) C schizophrenia (194) C schizophrenia (195) C schizophrenia (196) C schizophrenia (197) C schizophrenia (81) C schizophrenia (198) C Indian schizophrenia (199) C schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder (200) C schizophrenia…”

Reduced platelet serotonergic responsivity as assessed by dense granule secretion in first-episode psychosis

“…Membrane fluidity, in turn, is a function of membrane composition, primarily the unsaturated fatty acids in membrane phospholipids. Reductions in membrane polyunsaturated fatty acids, particularly the ω-3 and ω-6 series have found in treatment-naïve and chronically-treated patients with schizophrenia by several investigators (9). It is noteworthy that oral supplementation with eicosapentaenoic acid, an ω-3 PUFA, in schizophrenia results in markedly enhanced 5-HT amplified platelet aggregation (10).…”

Phospholipid, arachidonate and eicosanoid signaling in schizophrenia

“…Low AA levels have been identified in red blood cell (RBC) membranes from patients with chronic SZ (Glen et al, 1994;Peet et al, 1994;Vaddadi et al, 1986;Yao et al, 1994a), as well as first-episode neuroleptic-naïve SZ (Avrindakshan et al, 2003;Reddy et al, 2004). Thus, abnormally low AA levels have been observed in brain as well as RBC membrane phospholipids from patients with SZ (further reviewed by Conklin et al, 2007;Peet, 2007;Skosnik and Yao, 2003;Yao, 2003).…”