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Imaging microglia activity in schizophrenia

Microglia and schizophrenia: where next?

Molecular Psychiatry volume 22, pages 788–789 (2017)Cite this article

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The idea that microglial abnormalities might play a role in the etiology and pathophysiology of schizophrenia has attained increasing interest and acceptance in recent years. A prevalent hypothesis is that the functional disruption of these brain-resident immune cells may alter the normal course of brain development and maturation,1 for example, by means of interfering with synaptic pruning.2 Moreover, it has been postulated that aberrant activation of microglia in schizophrenia may influence the clinical course of the disease and affect the severity of symptoms in patients.3 While these hypotheses are, to some extent, neurobiologically plausible, they appear to be based on equivocal evidence.4, 5

Positron emission tomography (PET) using radio-labeled ligands selective for the 18 kDa translocator protein (TSPO) is one of the most widely used in vivo techniques for the assessment of possible microglial anomalies along the clinical course of schizophrenia.5 TSPO is a mitochondrial trans-membrane protein, which has been associated with a variety of biological functions, including regulation of cholesterol transport and synthesis of steroid hormones, mitochondrial respiration and adenosine triphosphate production, cell proliferation, apoptosis and immunomodulation.6 One of the main rationales underlying the use of TSPO radiotracers in imaging brain ‘microglia activation’ is that its binding increases in response to acute inflammatory stimuli such as acute endotoxemia or toxic lesions, which in turn correlates to some extent with changes in the activation status of microglia.7

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Zurich-Vetsuisse, Zurich, Switzerland

    T Notter & U Meyer

  2. Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    T Notter & U Meyer

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Correspondence to U Meyer.

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Notter, T., Meyer, U. Microglia and schizophrenia: where next?. Mol Psychiatry 22, 788–789 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2017.67

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