Free radicals don?t freeze: why red cell membrane phospholipids stored at low temperatures from schizophrenic patients show increased peroxidation*1

Abstract

This brief review was stimulated by the finding [ [1] Fox H. Ross B.M. Tocher D. Glen I. St Clair D. Degradation of specific polyunsaturated fatty acids in red blood cells stored at −20°C precedes faster in patients with schizophrenia compared to healthy controls. Prostag. Leukot. Essent. Fatty Acids. 2003; 69: 291-297 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (21) Google Scholar ] that in vitro storage of red cell membranes from schizophrenic patients is accompanied by greatly increased loss of unsaturated fatty acids presumably by peroxidation compared to control subjects stored at the same temperature and over the same time period. For highly unsaturated fatty acids such as arachidonic stored at <−70°C the linear loss over time for schizophrenia is twice that of controls. When storage at −20°C and −70°C was compared in control subjects there was no significant difference. However, when phospholipids in membranes from schizophrenic subjects were compared at −20°C and −70°C there was an approximately 50% reduction in polyunsaturated fatty acids at −20°C in the schizophrenic patients compared with −70°C. While it had been well recognised that phospholipids in membranes were subject to storage losses unless kept below −70°C, it had not been realised until now that there was a differential effect between schizophrenic patients and controls over a range of temperatures.