Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) in schizophrenia - Increases in cerebellar vermis

A high proportion of neurons in the cerebellum and in cholinergic brainstem nuclei stain positive for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-diaphorase (NADPHd), which is a nitric oxide synthase (NOS). Recent evidence suggests that schizophrenia may involve increased numbers of NADPHd-stained neurons in different areas of the subcortex. This led us to examine the actual concentration of NOS in postmortem brain specimens of cerebellum, and the relevant regions of brainstem tegmentum, to see if NOS concentrations were also increased in schizophrenia. Postmortem rain tissue was obtained at autopsy from schizophrenics and controls who did not have other brain disease. In patients with schizophrenia, NOS concentration was increased in the cerebellum (0.62 +/- 0.31 vs 0.32 +/- 0.27 absorption intensity or AI, p < 0.05), but not in mesopontine tegmentum or temporal pole. Increased vermal NOS concentration in schizophrenia may signify a developmentally based alteration in subcortical neuronal systems whose early development may be promoted by basic fibroblast growth factor, rather than nerve growth factor.