Copper and ceruloplasmin concentrations in the blood serum oe schizophrenic patients

Abstract

In spite of the large number of studies made up to now the exact biological meaning of copper is not known.The investigations about this element in neuropsychiatric pathology have been concerned mostly with hepatolenticular degeneration, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and schizophrenia.In our previous publications attention was focused on copper metabolism alterations in epilepsy 3 > r \ The aim of the present work is to study the behaviour of total copper and ceruloplasmin in the serum of schizophrenic patients, due do the lack of agreement of the available data on the literature. MATERIAL AND METHODSOf a total of 45 patients, 39 came from a private clinic and 6 from the Psychiatric Clinic of the Medical School of the University of São Paulo. Forthy-three patients were male and two were females, the age varying from 17 to 42 years. The sample included 38 white, 6 mulatoes and one japonese descendent patients.In 36 cases, blood samples were secured for total copper determination in the serum; in 20 cases, determination of ceruloplasmin were also made. The blood was collected from patients that had been for at least three hours in a fasting condition. Completely clean and dry tubes, syringes and needles were used. The samples were centrifuged 3 to 4 hour after collection, determinations being made on the same day, or the serum, after centrifugation, was stored at -10°C.The method used for the copper determinations was the one based on the reaction of sodium diethyldithiocarbamate with the cupric ion, in an ammoniacal medium containing citrate and pyrophosphate; the color of the resulting copper diethildithiocarbamate was stabilized with polyvinyl alcohol of grade 52-22 ,J .Ceruloplasmin activity was determined by the Houchin method 1J , after correction for the normal color of the blood serum.As shown in previous publications 7 , 8 normal values are 108 /¿g/100 ml for copper and 33.4 mg/100 ml for ceruloplasmin.The results presented here were subjected to conventional statistical analysis.