ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the change of serum insulin-like growth factor-2 (IGF-2) and its relationship with clinical characteristics in patients with schizophrenia. Methods Fifty-one schizophrenic patients were recruited in the present study and 50 healthy volunteers served as controls. The serum IGF-2 level was measured using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was used to evaluate the psychotic symp?toms of patients. Trail Making Test-A (TMTA), Digit-Symbol Coding Test (DSCT), Continuous Performance Test (CPT) and Stroop Color-Word Test (SCWT) were used to evaluate the cognitive function of both groups. Results There were sig?nificant differences in the results of TMTA, DSCT, CPT and SCWT between patient and control groups. The serum levels of IGF-2 were significantly lower in patients than that in controls [(202.7±40.7) ng/mL vs. (365.9±65.5) ng/mL, P0.05). Furthermore, significant correlations were found between the serum IGF-2 level and the negative symptom sub?scale of PANSS (r=-0.397, P=0.004), CPT score (r=0.378, P=0.006), SCWT-word number (r=0.289, P=0.040), SC? WT-color number (r=0.327, P=0.019) and SCWT-word/color number (r=0.386, P=0.005) in schizophrenic patients. Con?clusion The serum IGF-2 levels of patients with schizophrenia are significantly lower than that of healthy controls, and the IGF-2 level is associated with the severity of negative symptoms and cognitive impairments in patients, indicating that serum IGF-2 might be an indicator of the severity of schizophrenia.