Recent imaging studies have suggested that accelerated aging occurs in schizophrenia. However, the exact cause of these findings is still unclear. In this study we measured telomere length, a marker for cell senescence, in gray and white matter brain tissue from the medial frontal gyrus (MFG) and superior temporal gyrus (STG) of 9 patients with schizophrenia and 11 controls. No alterations in telomere length were found in MFG gray and white matter and in STG gray matter. A significant reduction in telomere length was observed in STG white matter of patients with schizophrenia as compared to controls (fold change of -0.42, U = 5, P = 0.008). Our results support previous findings that telomere length in gray matter is not affected, whereas they suggest that increased cell senescence may affect white matter temporal brain tissue.
Keywords: Aging; Brain; Schizophrenia; Senescence; Telomere.
Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.