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Genes within the placenta could signal a higher risk of schizophrenia, placenta provides oxygen and nutrients to a growing fetus and removes waste products. Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves, people with schizophrenia may seem like they have lost touch with reality.
The cause of schizophrenia is unknown and it is believed to be a mix of genetics (hereditary), abnormalities in brain chemistry, viral infections and immune disorders. Symptoms of schizophrenia usually begin between ages 16 and 30 and it falls into three categories: positive, negative, and cognitive. Positive symptoms are disturbances that are ‘added’ to the person’s personality and include: hallucinations, delusions, thought disorders (unusual or dysfunctional ways of thinking).
Negative symptoms are capabilities that are ‘lost’ from the person’s personality and include: ‘Flat affect’ (reduced expression of emotions via facial expression or voice tone) Reduced feelings of pleasure in everyday life, Difficultly beginning and sustaining activities, Cognitive symptoms are changes in their memory or other aspects of thinking and include: Trouble focusing or paying attention, Problems with ‘working memory, ‘
Poor ability to understand information and using it to make decisions.
Researchers found a high correlation of genes associated with risk for schizophrenia and a history of a potentially serious pregnancy complications. Those who have a high genetic risk and whose mothers had complications during pregnancy have greater risk of developing schizophrenia in comparison to those with similar high genetic risk but no history of serious obstetrical complications.
Researchers analyzed gene expression – the way that genes are coded to produce DNA – in multiple placenta tissue samples, including samples of placenta from complicated pregnancies that include preeclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction. Consistently, in women with complicated pregnancies, schizophrenia genes in the placenta were ‘turned on’ and, the more they were turned on, the more the placenta showed other signs of being under stress, for example, being more inflamed.
The researcher discovered that the schizophrenia genes turned on in the placenta from complicated pregnancies were dramatically more abundant in placentas from male children compared with female children.
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