Apoptosis and schizophrenia: a pilot study based on dermal fibroblast cell lines.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is an increased susceptibility to apoptosis in cultured fibroblasts from patients with schizophrenia.

Method: Dermal fibroblasts were collected and cultured from three groups: patients with schizophrenia, patients with non-schizophrenic psychosis, and healthy comparison subjects. Susceptibility to apoptosis was measured at the level of degradation product (proportion of cells in the sub-G0 cell cycle fraction in which apoptotic bodies accumulate), pro-apoptotic effector (activated caspase-3), and molecular regulators (P53, Bax and Bcl-2).

A microarray study of post-mortem mRNA degradation in mouse brain tissue.

Background: Although there is evidence that post-mortem interval (PMI) is not a major contributor to reduced overall RNA integrity, it may differentially affect a subgroup of gene transcripts that are susceptible to PMI-related degradation. This would particularly have ramifications for microarray studies that include a broad spectrum of genes.

Method: Brain tissue was removed from adult mice at 0, 6, 12, 18, 24, 36 and 48 h post-mortem.