By Traci Pedersen Associate News Editor Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 25, 2014

Neurons generated from the skin cells of schizophrenia patients behave strangely in the early developmental stages, offering clues that might lead to earlier detection and treatment, according to scientists from the Salk Institute.

The study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, supports the theory that the neurological dysfunction that eventually leads to schizophrenia may begin in the brains of fetuses.

This study aims to investigate the earliest detectable changes in the brain that lead to schizophrenia, said Fred H. Gage, Ph.D., professor of genetics at Salk. We were surprised at how early in the developmental process that defects in neural function could be detected.

Up until now, scientists could only study the disease by examining the brains of cadavers; but age, stress, medication, or drug abuse had often changed or damaged these brains, making it harder to figure out the where it all began.

The Salk scientists were able to go around this obstacle by using stem cell technologies. They took skin cells from patients, coaxed the cells back to an earlier stem cell form and then prompted them to grow into very early-stage neurons called neural progenitor cells (NPCs). These NPCs are similar to cells found in the brain of a fetus.

The researchers tested the cells in two ways: In one test, they looked at how far the cells moved and interacted with particular surfaces; in the other test, they looked at cell stress by imaging mitochondria, tiny organelles that generate energy for the cells.

On both tests, the NPCs from schizophrenia patients differed in significant ways from those taken from people without the disease.

In particular, cells taken from people with schizophrenia showed unusual activity in two major classes of proteins: those involved in adhesion and connectivity, and those involved in oxidative stress. Schizophrenia neural cells seemed to have aberrant migration (which may result in the poor connectivity seen later in the brain) and greater levels of oxidative stress.

These results support the current theory that eventsduring pregnancy can contribute to schizophrenia, even though symptoms typically dont begin until early adulthood. For example, previous research suggests that pregnant mothers who experience infection, malnutrition, or extreme stress are at greater risk of having children with schizophrenia.

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Skin Cell Research Suggests Schizophrenia Begins in Womb