Abstract
Objective: Young patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) may present with schizophrenia-like psychosis. Few studies have investigated whether FTD-like neuropathological changes are present in schizophrenia. The purpose of the present study was therefore to determine whether FTD-like abnormalities in TARDNA binding protein (TDP-43) and ubiquitin are detectable in hippocampal dentate gyrus of patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. A secondary objective was to identify clinicopathological relationships of any such abnormalities.
Methods: Hippocampal sections from 12 patients (nine with schizophrenia and three with bipolar disorder) and 11 control subjects Facility from the National Neural Tissue Resource Centre, Melbourne were blindly rated for the presence or absence of normal TDP-43 staining or ubiquitin-positive neuronal inclusions within the dentate gyrus. The clinical files of all subjects were reviewed for demographic and clinical information.
Results: In three patients the normal expression of nuclear TDP-43 staining was not detected. Significantly, all three subjects presented after the age of 50 and had an adult child diagnosed with the same psychiatric disorder.
Conclusion: Abnormalities in TDP-43 nuclear expression were identified in patients with late-onset psychosis and a positive family history.