Abstract
Background: A number of investigators have reported finding elevated basal and stimulated
intracellular calcium levels in the platelets or lymphocytes of bipolar disorder patients.
Methods: Intracellular calcium was measured by a micro fura-2 fluorometric method
in the platelets and lymphocytes of 30 affective disorder patients and 14 control
subjects.
Results: We observed significantly elevated basal calcium concentrations in bipolar
patient platelets and lymphocytes compared to control subjects. Bipolar patient platelet
calcium responses to thrombin, serotonin, and thapsigargin were also significantly
greater than control subjects. The peak calcium levels of lymphocytes of bipolar patients
were greater than control subjects only when stimulated by thapsigargin. There were
significant differences between bipolar and unipolar patients in basal and thapsigargin-stimulated
calcium measures but not between bipolar I and bipolar II patients. Unmedicated versus
medicated calcium measures were not significantly different. We also found little
correlation between calcium measures and the severity of mood rating.
Conclusions: Using this method, we were able to confirm and extend the work of others,
indicating altered intracellular calcium homeostasis in the blood cells of bipolar
disorder patients. In addition, our data suggest that storage operated calcium channels
may be the source of the elevated intracellular calcium in platelets and lymphocytes
of bipolar patients.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
September 15,
1998
Received in revised form:
August 17,
1998
Received:
February 23,
1998
Identification
Copyright
© 1999 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
