Background: Abnormal structural/functional connectivity has been proposed to underlie the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. However, the biochemical basis of abnormal connectivity remains undefined.
Methods: We undertook a shotgun lipidomic analysis of over 700 lipids across 26 lipid subclasses in the frontal cortex of schizophrenia subjects and hippocampus of G72/G30 transgenic mice.
Results: We demonstrate that glycosphingolipids and choline plasmalogens, structural lipid pools in myelin, are significantly elevated in the frontal cortex obtained from patients suffering from schizophrenia and the hippocampus of G72/G30 transgenic mice.
Conclusions: Our data suggest that structural lipid alterations in oligodendrocyte glycosynapses are responsible for dysconnectivity in schizophrenia and that increased expression of G72 protein may play a role in the development of abnormal glycosynapses.
Keywords: Dysconnectivity; Glycosynapse; Plasmalogens; Schizophrenia; Sulfatides.
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