Forensic Neurobiochemical Studies on Schizophrenia

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We tried to perform neurobiochemical research to frontal cortex tissues of autopsied human brains for the purpose of practical application of the judgments of forensic sutopsy cases. The brains, autopsied at the Department of Legal Medicine, Kobe University School of Medicine and the Medical Examiner's Office of Hyogo Prefecture, included 45 cases of acute death consisting of 5 cases of controls, 6 cases of schizophrenia, 5 cases of depression and 29 cases of suicide. As for patients of schizophrenia and depression, they were clinically diagnosed at some medical facilities in their life time. At the time of each autopsy, whole brain was weighed and right side hemisphere was frozen in -80ﾟC freezer instantly, and left side hemisphere was sliced with 5 to 10 mm thickness in coronal sections and after fixation for several days in 4% paraformaldehyde 0.01M buffer solution (pH7.4), fixed by 15% sucrose 0.01M buffer solution (pH7.4). From each side of hemisphere, hippocampus and dorsolateralprefrontal cortex (superior frontal gyrus) and occipital visual association cortex were obtained as tissue blocks and specimens. Each specimen from left side was stained by classical methods and amyloid staining methods, immunohisto-chemically with GFAP,lactotransferrin (LF) and HLA-DR for the purpose of excluding of pathological disoders. While, we tried to refine antibodies for D2 reeptor for dopaminergic neuron and NMDA receptor for gultaminergic neuron for receptor assay. However, these antibodies weren't enough specific of receptor assay. So, we researched for polymorphism in serotonin transporter gene, which was said to be concerned with suicide. However, no significant difference between psychiatric disordre cases, suicide cases and control cases was found. It was suggested that for the purpose of practical application of the judgments of forensic autopsy cases, further examinations of brain tissues in this research were needed.