Developmental and Pharmacological Models of Schizophrenia: What Did They Teach Us About Cellular Mechanisms Associated With the Disease?
Year: 2010
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental disease re-sulting from abnormal early brain development and/or impaired postnatal maturation of the brain. Th e complex and varying symptoms of the disease indi-cate that an interplay of multiple factors rather than one single factor triggers this illness. Both genetic and epigenetic factors have been identifi ed and a hy-pothesis, the “two hit hypothesis”, has been proposed explaining the origins of the disease by at least two subsequent etiological “hits”, a genetic predisposition and an epigenetic factor. Many studies of people with schizophrenia have found subtle abnormalities in brain structure or in the way it functions caused by disturbances in cell migra-tion, neurite outgrowth, axon fasciculation, synapse formation, and adult neurogenesis. Th ese disturbances are in close relations with alterations in neurotrophic factors. It was hypothesised that imbalances in the neurotrophic system might contribute to alterations in the brain which are closely connected with schizo-phrenia. To further characterise cellular processes involved in schizophrenia we studied neurogenesis, neurotrophic factors, and eff ects of neuroleptic drugs in a developmental model (Vitamin D defi ciency) and a pharmacological model (subchronic treatment with the non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist ketamine). Developmental models are basing on the assumption that damage at a very early stage of onto-genesis results in structural abnormalities
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1926415258