Could Microchimerism be an Etiological Factor in Psychotic Disorders? A Hypothetical Suggestion

In this letter to the editor, a possible etiologic relationship between microchimerism and psychotic disorders has been hypothezied and several study proposals that could be used in the testing of this hypothesis has been suggested

Can We Determine High Risk Groups in Schizophrenia A Hypothesis

Neurodevelopmental hypothesis suggested that schizophrenia is a disorder of early brain development, in which the brain structural abnormalities are present. The causes of the abnormal processes remains unclear however, Genetics vulnerability, obstetric complications and viral infections have been shown to play a role in this disorder. Several studies have shown a greater incidence of winter or spring births in patients. Prenatal and perinatal infections, especially in the second trimester of pregnancy, have been considered a plausible risk factor for schizophrenia. Maternal exposure to influenza, herpes viruses, varicella zoster virus, Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalovirus and rarely rubella virus infections confers an increased risk of schizophrenia to the developing offspring. As clinicians, we observed that our patients with psychotic disorder were not exposed to the viral infections even during epidemic. We hypothesized that perinatal viral infections have been associated with lifelong immunity to this infectious diseases which on the other hand cause an increased risk of developing schizophrenia. If we could determine antibodies against these viruses among patients with schizophrenia, perhaps we will be able to identify accurate markers heralding psychotic illness as well as can use these markers in a large population-based sample

Can Microchimerism Find Itself a Place in Psychiatric Research?

Microchimerism is the existence of small amount of cells or DNA of one individual within another individual. The most common reason for this condition is pregnancy. Even after normal pregnancies, cells that belong to the fetus can be found in the mother and maternal cells can be found in the fetus. It was shown that microchimerism can survive in the host. Researchers have speculated that microchimeric cells could induce a reaction similar to graft versus host disease which in turn may lead to autoimmune disorders. Microchimeric cells have been detected in the brain tissue of rats and fetuses and in other tissues and organs as well. There is no consensus on whether the microchimeric cells that migrate from mother to fetus is to repair some pa-thology in the body or is the cause of any possible future pathology. Even though there have been many studies on microchimerism in medicine, no study have been performed on the field of psychiatry. We believe that microchimerism may be an important alternative explanation to the etiology of chronic degenerative psychiatric diseases and postpartum clinical condi-tions. This manuscript discusses the applicability of microchimerism re-search in the field of psychiatric studies