Clinical Chemistry, Vol 12, 709-716, Copyright © 1966 by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry

Elevation of Serum Protein-Bound Carbohydrates and Haptoglobin in Schizophrenia

¹ Research and Psychiatry Services of the Minneapolis Veterans Adnministration Hospital and the Departments of Biochemistry and Psychiatry of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn. 55417.

The mean concentration of each of the serum protein-bound carbohydrates (hexose, hexosamine, fucose, and sialic acid) was significantly elevated in a group of 60 male schizophrenic patients. The total serum protein was elevated, ceruloplasmin was normal, and C-reactive protein was absent. Serum haptoglobin was significantly elevated. The distribution of haptoglobin types was normal. Haptoglobin concentration variation was significantly correlated with each of the carbohydrates and, to a lesser degree, with ceruloplasmin. In a group of 13 patients with normal erythrocyte sedimentation rate, the fibrinogen and haptoglobin concentrations were significantly elevated. There was no correlation between haptoglobin and fibrinogen concentrations in this group.