Brain cell membrane motion-restricted phospholipids: a cerebral 31-phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy study of patients with schizophrenia

This study directly assessed, for the first time, whether there was a change in brain cell motion-restricted membrane phospholipids in vivo in patients with schizophrenia with mild to moderate negative symptoms, by quantification of the underlying broad resonance signal of cerebral 31-phosphorus magnetic resonance scans. Cerebral 31-phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy was carried out in 16 schizophrenia patients and 16 age- and gender-matched normal controls. Spectra were obtained from 70x70x70 mm3 voxels using an image-selected in vivo spectroscopy pulse sequence. There was no significant difference in the broad resonances between the two groups, with the mean (S.E.) percentage signal being 59.4 (5.6) for the patients and 53.5 (5.9) for the controls. The phosphomonoesters and phosphodiesters narrow signals also did not differ significantly, their ratio being 0.26 (0.01) in the patients and 0.25 (0.01) in the controls. These results appear to be at variance with the changes expected under the membrane phospholipid hypothesis of schizophrenia.