Neurodevelopment, brain vasculatureand schizophrenia

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that arises from abnormal neurodevelopment, led by genetic and environmental factors. Several lines of evidence suggest the involvement of both the nervous and vascular system in the etiology and pathophysiology of schizophrenia. The nervous and vascular system are intimately related in terms of development, establishment, and function. Therefore, alterations in either of them would potentially affect the correct development and functioning of both systems. In this thesis, human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons were used to study early neurodevelopment in schizophrenia. To investigate physiological adult neurogenesis and the possible contribution of the cerebral vasculature to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, single-cell gene expression profiling of post-mortem brain tissues was performed. Together, our data and observations contribute to the understanding of schizophrenia brain pathology, as well as to our knowledge of human neurodevelopment and brain vasculature heterogeneity.