Telomere quantification in frontal and temporal brain tissue of patients with schizophrenia

Recent imaging studies have suggested that accelerated aging occurs in schizophrenia. However, the exact cause of these findings is still unclear. In this study we measured telomere length, a marker for cell senescence, in gray and white matter brain tissue from the medial frontal gyrus (MFG) and superior temporal gyrus (STG) of 9 patients with schizophrenia and 11 controls. No alterations in telomere length were found in MFG gray and white matter and in STG gray matter. A significant reduction in telomere length was observed in STG white matter of patients with schizophrenia as compared to controls (fold change of −0.42, U = 5, P = 0.008). Our results support previous findings that telomere length in gray matter is not affected, whereas they suggest that increased cell senescence may affect white matter temporal brain tissue.