Histamine H1 receptors in schizophrenic patients measured by positron emission tomography

Increasing evidence has shown that the histaminergic neuron system is implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. The aim of this study was to compare the distribution of histamine H1 receptors between schizophrenics and normal human subjects in vivo using positron emission tomography (PET). H1 receptor binding was measured in 10 normal subjects and 10 medicated schizophrenic patients by PET and [11C] doxepin, a radioligand for the H1 receptor. The binding potential (BP=Bmax/KD) of [11C] doxepin for available brain H1 receptors was calculated by a graphical analysis on voxel-by-voxel basis and compared between schizophrenics and normal subjects using the regions of interest (ROIs) and the statistical parametrical mapping (SPM99). BP values for H1 receptors in the frontal and prefrontal cortices and the cingulate gyrus were significantly lower among the schizophrenic patients than among the control subjects. On the contrary, there were no areas of the brain where H1 receptors were significantly higher among the schizophrenic patients than the control subjects. The results of our study suggest that the central histaminergic neuron system could be involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, although further studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis.