Ultrastructural alterations in hippocampal mossy fiber synapses in schizophrenia: a postmortem morphometric study.

Synapses formed between mossy fibers, the axons of hippocampal dentate granular cells, and the dendrites of CA3 pyramidal neurons are important links within the trisynaptic circuitry. Abnormalities in this circuitry are associated with the failure of schizophrenics to integrate affective experience with higher cognitive function, and with disturbances in memory and spatial learning processes. The abnormalities include reduced size and altered dendritic arborization of CA3 pyramidal neurons. In addition, decreased expression and binding activity of glutamate receptors have been reported, predominantly in the CA3 region of the hippocampus. These findings suggest that there are disturbed neuronal processes and connections in the hippocampus of schizophrenics. An electron microscope morphometric study of synaptic contacts between mossy fiber axon terminals (MFT) and branched dendritic spines of pyramidal neurons in stratum lucidum of the CA3 region of the hippocampus was performed in 10 normal controls and 9 age-matched chronic schizophrenics (postmortem delay 3-9 h). Schizophrenic cases with predominantly positive symptoms had a significantly reduced volume fraction of spines (-35%, P < 0.05), total number of invaginated spines (-47%, P < 0.01), and number of spines forming synapses (-32%, P < 0.05) per MFT compared with the control group. No effects of postmortem delay, age, duration of disease, or neuroleptic exposure were found. These data may reflect decreased efficacy of mossy fiber synapses in the CA3 hippocampal region in schizophrenics with predominantly positive symptoms. These data are in line with the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia.