Differences in the Lipid Domain Organization of Erythrocyte Membranes in Patients with Schizophrenia

Gradually accumulating evidence indicates that schizophrenia may be accompanied by alterations of membrane phospholipids, however knowledge about how it affects lipid domain organization of membrane is lacking. We compared the membrane lipid domain organization of red blood cell (RBC) membranes from two groups of patients with schizophrenia selected by their high positive syndrome (PS) or negative syndrome (NS) scores on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, and control subjects without known psychiatric history. Differences in the surface distribution of the membrane phospholipids were elucidated by: 1) registering the fluorescence excitation spectra of the polarity-sensitive lipid probe Laurdan incorporated into the RBC membrane, 2) measuring the resonance energy transfer (RET) from tryptophan to fluorescent analogs of the main RBC phospholipids phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin, and 3) determining the changes in RET from tryptophan to the sphingomyelin probe induced by prostaglandin E1. The data obtained with RBCs from either normal subjects or PS patients were largely similar, but differed significantly from those obtained with RBCs of patients with NS schizophrenia. The results support validity of the clinical distinction of schizophrenia into positive and negative subtypes.