An Autopsy Case of Disorganized Type of Schizophrenia: Dopamine Neurons in the Ventral Tegmental Area

The mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system has been associated with the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Here, we show DA-containing neuronal structures of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of an autopsy case of disorganized type of schizophrenia (75 year-old female), using tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunohistochemistry. A free floating method using 50- m cryostat sections and three-dimensional imaging analyzer AvioVision were applied to observe wide range structures of TH-immunoreactive (-ir) neurons. TH-ir neuronal cell bodies in the VTA of the present case varied in shape and size, and TH-ir neuronal processes had irregular thickness, straightened shape, or curved shape having many corners, when compared with a control autopsy case with no detectable neurological and psychiatric diseases (64 year-old male). Mean volume of the nerve cells is diminished in the VTA of drug-naive schizophrenia. The mechanisms underlying the morphological characteristics of DA neurons of the brains with schizophrenia should further be elucidated epigenetically as well as genetically.