Schizophrenic embryos
Schizophrenia is laid in the embryo
Scientists from the School of Biomedical and Medical Research at the State University of New York at Buffalo (USA) conducted a study that showed that genetic mutations that lead to the development of schizophrenia are formed in the embryo in the womb, reports Infox.
Moreover, these breakdowns may not appear in a child immediately, but after a certain time, as a rule, in adolescence or already in adulthood.
Surprisingly, the authors came to this conclusion by studying the skin cells of patients with schizophrenia – they returned these cells to their embryonic state – induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), from which the precursors of neuronal stem cells were then formed (they give rise to all types of neurons).
Having studied the genes of neuronal stem cells obtained from the skin cells of four patients with schizophrenia and four healthy people, scientists have found out how they differ.
"Over the past ten years, many studies have been conducted showing that schizophrenia is associated with genetic mutations. But it remained unclear when and how these mutations occur. We managed to figure it out. We saw that the embryo is disorganized by the work of a whole complex of genes – only about a thousand," says the lead author of the study, Dr. Michal K. Stachowiak (Michal K. Stachowiak). (In a University at Buffalo press release, the Faulty genomic pathway is linked to schizophrenia developing in utero, study finds – VM.)
Now, according to him, they are working to grow a mini-brain from neuronal stem cells in order to study how schizophrenia develops on this more complex model.
As scientists say, they hope that their work will lead to the creation of methods to prevent this severe mental illness even at the very first stages of embryo development, when the formation of the brain is just beginning – for this therapy should be carried out for pregnant women.
In the meantime, scientists report on the results of their research in the latest issue of the journal Schizophrenia Research: Narla et al., Common developmental genome deprogramming in schizophrenia — Role of Integrative Nuclear FGFR1 Signaling (INFS).
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01.03.2017