Replicated Evidence of Absence of Association between Serum S100B and (Risk of) Psychotic Disorder

Abstract

BackgroundS100B is a potential marker of neurological and psychiatric illness. In schizophrenia, increased S100B levels, as well as associations with acute positive and persisting negative symptoms, have been reported. It remains unclear whether S100B elevation, which possibly reflects glial dysfunction, is the consequence of disease or compensatory processes, or whether it is an indicator of familial risk.MethodsSerum samples were acquired from two large independent family samples (n = 348 and n = 254) in the Netherlands comprising patients with psychotic disorder (n = 140 and n = 82), non-psychotic siblings of patients with psychotic disorder (n = 125 and n = 94) and controls (n = 83 and n = 78). S100B was analyzed with a Liaison automated chemiluminescence system. Associations between familial risk of psychotic disorder and S100B were examined.ResultsResults showed that S100B levels in patients (P) and siblings (S) were not significantly different from controls (C) (dataset 1: P vs. C: B = 0.004, 95% CI −0.005 to 0.013, p = 0.351; S vs. C: B = 0.000, 95% CI −0.009 to 0.008, p = 0.926; and dataset 2: P vs. C: B = 0.008, 95% CI −0.011 to 0.028, p = 0.410; S vs. C: B = 0.002, 95% CI −0.016 to 0.021, p = 0.797). In patients, negative symptoms were positively associated with S100B (B = 0.001, 95% CI 0.000 to 0.002, p = 0.005) in one of the datasets, however with failure of replication in the other. There was no significant association between S100B and positive symptoms or present use or type of antipsychotic medication.ConclusionsS100B is neither an intermediate phenotype, nor a trait marker for psychotic illness.

Serum S100B Is Related to Illness Duration and Clinical Symptoms in Schizophrenia—A Meta-Regression Analysis

“…Corresponding authors were contacted in cases where S100B levels or patient characteristics for schizophrenia-only patients were not explicitly stated in the original article. As authors did not reply, another two studies were excluded (van der Leeuw et al, 2013 ; Xiong et al, 2014 ). This resulted in an overall number of 19 original studies to be included in the quantitative meta-analysis, comprising a total of 766 patients and 607 healthy control subjects.…”

Behavioral sequelae of astrocyte dysfunction: focus on animal models of schizophrenia

“…A recent meta-analysis has revealed elevated serum S100β in schizophrenia without any effects of antipsychotics and has proposed that this increase is related to active secretion of the protein by astrocytes in combination with blood-brain barrier dysfunction in schizophrenia (Schroeter et al, 2009). However, there have been negative studies as well (Uzbay et al, 2013; van der Leeuw et al, 2013). Steiner and colleagues have proposed that up-regulation of S100β in schizophrenia may be a result of alterations in glucose metabolism (Steiner et al, 2010).…”

Serum S100B: A proxy marker for grey and white matter status in the absence and presence of (increased risk of) psychotic disorder?

“…We did not find S100B elevation in unaffected siblings of patients with psychotic disorder. Nor was S100B elevated in patients with psychotic disorder in our samples (including patients generally not in an acute stage of the disorder, with a mean illness duration <10 years) [ 1 ]. The absence of S100B elevation in patients and siblings in our study, in combination with the previously reported positive findings in predominantly hospitalized patients (with more severe psychopathology), suggests that S100B elevations may reflect non-remitted illness processes in certain patient populations.…”