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. 2015 Oct 29:9:393.
doi: 10.3389/fncel.2015.00393. eCollection 2015.

Calretinin and parvalbumin in schizophrenia and affective disorders: a mini-review, a perspective on the evolutionary role of calretinin in schizophrenia, and a preliminary post-mortem study of calretinin in the septal nuclei

Ralf Brisch  1 , Hendrik Bielau  2 , Arthur Saniotis  3 , Rainer Wolf  4 , Bernhard Bogerts  5 , Dieter Krell  2 , Johann Steiner  5 , Katharina Braun  6 , Marta Krzyżanowska  1 , Maciej Krzyżanowski  1 , Zbigniew Jankowski  1 , Michał Kaliszan  1 , Hans-Gert Bernstein  2 , Tomasz Gos  1
Affiliations

Calretinin and parvalbumin in schizophrenia and affective disorders: a mini-review, a perspective on the evolutionary role of calretinin in schizophrenia, and a preliminary post-mortem study of calretinin in the septal nuclei

Ralf Brisch et al. Front Cell Neurosci. .

Abstract

Objective: The septal nuclei are important limbic regions that are involved in emotional behavior and connect to various brain regions such as the habenular complex. Both the septal nuclei and the habenular complex are involved in the pathology of schizophrenia and affective disorders.

Methods: We characterized the number and density of calretinin-immunoreactive neurons in the lateral, medial, and dorsal subregions of the septal nuclei in three groups of subjects: healthy control subjects (N = 6), patients with schizophrenia (N = 10), and patients with affective disorders (N = 6).

Results: Our mini-review of the combined role of calretinin and parvalbumin in schizophrenia and affective disorders summarizes 23 studies. We did not observe significant differences in the numbers of calretinin-immunoreactive neurons or neuronal densities in the lateral, medial, and dorsal septal nuclei of patients with schizophrenia or patients with affective disorders compared to healthy control subjects.

Conclusions: Most post-mortem investigations of patients with schizophrenia have indicated significant abnormalities of parvalbumin-immunoreactive neurons in various brain regions including the hippocampus, the anterior cingulate cortex, and the prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia. This study also provides an explanation from an evolutionary perspective for why calretinin is affected in schizophrenia.

Keywords: affective disorders; calretinin; evolution of the human brain; parvalbumin; post-mortem studies; schizophrenia; septal nuclei.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Calretinin-immunopostive neurons (arrows) in the Ncl. lateralis of a patient with schizophrenia (modified from Pennington et al., 2008).
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) Numbers of calretinin-immunoreactive neuron in the septal nuclei of patients with schizophrenia, patients with affective disorders, and healthy control subjects. The data are presented as the mean and standard deviation. (B) Densities of calretinin-immunoreactive neuron in the septal nuclei of patients with schizophrenia, patients with affective disorders, and healthy control subjects. The data are presented as the mean and standard deviation.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(A–E) Calretinin-immunopostive neurons in the Ncl. medialis of a healthy control subject (A); Ncl. medialis of a patient with major depressive disorder (B); Ncl. lateralis of a patient with major depressive disorder (C); Ncl. medialis of a patient with schizophrenia (D); and Ncl. medialis of a healthy control subject (E). Scale bars correspond to 50 μm. Ncl., nucleus.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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