Glutamatergic gene expression is specifically reduced in thalamocortical projecting relay neurons in schizophrenia.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Impairment of glutamate neurons that relay sensory and cognitive information from the medial dorsal thalamus to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and other cortical regions may contribute to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. In this study, we have assessed the cell-specific expression of glutamatergic transcripts in the medial dorsal thalamus.

Methods

We used laser capture microdissection to harvest two populations of medial dorsal thalamic cells, one enriched with glutamatergic relay neurons and the other with gamma-aminobutyric acidergic neurons and astroglia, from postmortem brains of subjects with schizophrenia (n = 14) and a comparison group (n = 20). Quantitative polymerase chain reaction of extracted RNA was used to assay gene expression in the differe

SUBMITTER: Sodhi MS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3176961 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature