Brain Neuropeptidergic Function in Suicide Victims

✍ Scribed by BELÉN ARRANZ; KAJ BLENNOW; ROLF EKMAN; ANDERS ERIKSSON; JAN MARCUSSON

• Book ID: 102658761
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 963 KB
• Volume: 11
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6222
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1077(199611)11:6<451::aid-hup812>3.0.co;2-#

✦ Synopsis

To examine how neuropeptide dysfunction may account for some of the behavioural and physiological alterations observed in depressive illness, neuropeptide Y (NPY), somatostatin (SOM) and corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF)-like immunoreactivity (LI), was measured in frontal cortex, gyrus cinguli and hypothalamus from 18 suicide victims and 23 matched controls. A high performance liquid chromatography separation of the NPY immunoreactive fragments was also performed. Overall suicides did not show significant differences with respect to the control group. However, a significant increase in NPY-LI was noted in the frontal cortex of those suicides dying from carbon monoxide poisoning. The chromatographic characterization showed a distinctly different NPY-LI peak pattern in the depressed suicides, which suggests the possibility of depression being associated with an alteration in the catabolic products of certain neuropeptidergic systems.