ALTERED METABOLISM OF METHIONINE METHYL-GROUP IN LEUKOCYTES OF PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA

  • 1 January 1978
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 13  (6) , 649-660
Abstract
Leukocytes from patients with schizophrenia were incubated with methyl-14C-L-methionine and the evolved 14CO2 measured. With increasing concentration of methionine, the evolved 14CO2 was lower in the patients than in normal control subjects. The incorporation of 14C into protein was the same in both groups, and when carboxyl-14C-L-methionine was used the evolved 14CO2 was the same in both groups. This excluded the possibility that altered incorporation into protein or oxidation of the methionine molecule as a whole were responsible. An abnormality in transmethylation processes or in oxidation of the methyl group to CO2 is apparently associated with schizophrenia. That this occurs in a peripheral tissue indicates that the abnormality is not restricted to the CNS.

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