ArticleEuropean archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience2012
Reduced density of hypothalamic VGF-immunoreactive neurons in schizophrenia: a potential link to impaired growth factor signaling and energy homeostasis.
Article in European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Contrasting Effects of Clozapine and Risperidone on Cholesterol Metabolism, Synaptic Proteins, and Transcriptional Regulation in Human LUHMES Neurons.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Article
- Predicting the diagnosis of various mental disorders in a mixed cohort using blood-based multi-protein model: a machine learning approach.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2023Article
- VGF as a biomarker and therapeutic target in neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases.Brain communications · 2021Review
- VGF has Roles in the Pathogenesis of Major Depressive Disorder and Schizophrenia: Evidence from Transgenic Mouse Models.Cellular and molecular neurobiology · 2019Review
- Pharmacological and Biochemical Characterization of TLQP-21 Activation of a Binding Site on CHO Cells.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2017Article
- Profiles of VGF Peptides in the Rat Brain and Their Modulations after Phencyclidine Treatment.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2017Article
- NPAS3 Regulates Transcription and Expression of VGF: Implications for Neurogenesis and Psychiatric Disorders.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2016Article
- The potential of biomarkers in psychiatry: focus on proteomics.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2015Review
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- Dicholine succinate, the neuronal insulin sensitizer, normalizes behavior, REM sleep, hippocampal pGSK3 beta and mRNAs of NMDA receptor subunits in mouse models of depression.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2015Article
- Neuropeptide precursor VGF is genetically associated with social anhedonia and underrepresented in the brain of major mental illness: its downregulation by DISC1.Human molecular genetics · 2014Article
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- Article
- Diffusion imaging-based subdivision of the human hypothalamus: a magnetic resonance study with clinical implications.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2013Article
- Biomarkers and neurobiology of schizophrenia.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Protein expression of VGF (nonacronymic) is induced by nerve/brain-derived growth factor, neurotrophin 3, and insulin. VGF is synthesized by neurons in the paraventricular (PVN) and supraoptic (SON) nuclei of the hypothalamus. After enzymatic processing, smaller VGF-derived peptides are secreted into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or blood. These peptides play important roles by improving synaptic plasticity, neurogenesis, and energy homeostasis, which are impaired in schizophrenia. Based on previous observations of neuroendocrine and hypothalamic deficits in schizophrenia and to determine whether increased levels of the VGF fragment 23-62 in CSF, which have been described in a recent study, were related to changes in hypothalamic VGF expression, an immunohistochemical study was performed in 20 patients with schizophrenia and 19 matched control subjects. N- (D-20) and C-terminal (R-15) VGF antibodies yielded similar results and immunolabeled a vast majority of PVN and SON neurons. Additionally, D20-VGF immunohistochemistry revealed immunostained fibers in the pituitary stalk and neurohypophysis that ended at vessel walls, suggesting axonal transport and VGF secretion. The cell density of D20-VGF-immunoreactive neurons was reduced in the left PVN (P = 0.002) and SON (P = 0.008) of patients with schizophrenia. This study provides the first evidence for diminished hypothalamic VGF levels in schizophrenia, which might suggest increased protein secretion. Our finding was particularly significant in subjects without metabolic syndrome (patients with a body mass index ≤28.7 kg/m(2)). In conclusion, apart from beneficial effects on synaptic plasticity and neurogenesis, VGF may be linked to schizophrenia-related alterations in energy homeostasis.
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