Phospholipid patterns of erythrocytes in schizophrenia: relationships to symptomatology

The phospholipid composition of red blood cells (RBC) from 32 haloperidol-t reated schizophrenic patients, classified according to the positive and neg ative syndrome scale (PANSS) as showing either predominantly positive or pr edominantly negative symptoms, was determined and compared with that of nor mal controls. While the levels of phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylserin e were similar in all three groups, sphingomyelin (SM) and phosphatidyletha nolamine (PE) were, respectively, increased and decreased in RBCs of schizo phrenic patients. In both patient groups, the SM/PE ratios correlated direc tly with the PANSS negative symptom scale scores and inversely with the pos itive symptom scale scores. However, the inverse changes in the contents of SM and PE were much more expressed in the negative group. It is suggested that a main source of that difference is a higher activity of the polyunsat urated acid-selective phospholipase A, in the negative syndrome patients th an in the positive syndrome and control groups. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B .V. All rights reserved.