Transthyretin Levels in Sera of First-Onset, Drug-Naïve Schizophrenia Patients and Prefrontal Cortex Post-Mortem Tissue from Schizophrenia Patients

<p>The serum samples from the same patients whose CSF protein profiles were measured in <a href="http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030428#pmed-0030428-g001" target="_blank">Figures 1</a> and <a href="http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030428#pmed-0030428-g006" target="_blank">6</a> were included in this study. <a href="http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030428#pmed-0030428-g005" target="_blank">Figure 5</a>A shows serum tranythyretin levels in patients with schizophrenia significantly decreased by ~15% compared to control subjects. Data are shown in mean ± standard deviation, and the asterisk denotes <i>p</i> = 0.0007 (<i>t</i>-test). <a href="http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030428#pmed-0030428-g005" target="_blank">Figure 5</a>B indicates no correlation between serum transthyretin and CSF SELDI signals from one of the transthyretin isoforms (<i>m/z</i> = 13,741) in the second sample set (for demographics, see <a href="http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030428#pmed-0030428-t002" target="_blank">Table 2</a>). Similar results were found when comparing with signals from other isoforms in CSF (unpublished data). <a href="http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030428#pmed-0030428-g005" target="_blank">Figure 5</a>C shows an ~40% decrease of transthyretin expression in prefrontal cortex of five patients with schizophrenia and in five control subjects. For demographic details, see <a href="http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030428#pmed-0030428-t005" target="_blank">Table 5</a>.