Abstract

SOLIS-CHAGOYAN, Héctor; DOMINGUEZ-ALONSO, Aline; CALIXTO, Eduardo  and  BENITEZ-KING, Gloria. The culture of olfactory ephitelium neuronal precursors: A model for studying schizophrenia neurophysiopathology. Salud Ment [online]. 2012, vol.35, n.3, pp.241-246. ISSN 0185-3325.

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganization in speech and thinking as well as alterations in social behavior, and affective flattening. Schizophrenic patients also have an olfactory deficit since prodromal stages of this disorder. The olfactory deficit could be present in schizophrenic patients due to anatomic and structural alteration of the Central Nervous System, or peripheral abnormalities in the olfactory epithelium. The major alterations of the Central Nervous System are diminished volumes of olfactory bulb and structures of primary olfactory cortex, hippocampus and amygdala. While, olfactory epithelium has functional abnormalities in cellular differentiation and electric response of sensory olfactory neurons, which suggest an impairment of the odor transduction. The cellular culture of olfactory epithelium has allowed isolating multipotential progenitor cells that have the ability to proliferate and differentiate in mature neurons and glia. This model could provide evidences on the causes that could explain the olfactory deficits in schizophrenia. Moreover, it will allow testing hypothesis on pathophysiological causes of this mental disorder in different of stages of the neurodevelopment. In addition, olfactory epithelial neuronal precursors constitute a novel model to detect genetic, proteomic and functional biomarkers that allow a biological diagnosis.

Keywords : Schizophrenia; olfactory deficit; olfactory epithelium; olfactory pathway; neurodevelopment.

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