A re-investigation of the behavioural effects of intracerebral injection in marmosets of cytopathic cerebrospinal fluid from patients with schizophrenia or neurological disease

Abstract

Synopsis: In experiments designed to investigate transmission, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from patients with schizophrenia or neurological disease (Huntington's disease) which had been found to induce a cytopathic effect (CPE) in human embryonic fibroblast cell culture was injected intracerebrally into common marmosets. Behavioural observations were made on the animals during a period of 2½ years prior to injection and for 2½ years after injection. In an earlier study (Baker et al. 1983 b) we found that animals injected with CPE + ve CSF became progressively more inactive when compared with those injected with non-cytopathic (CPE – ve) CSF from control patients. In the present study we were unable to replicate this finding. No difference in behaviour emerged between animals injected with control CSF and animals injected with CSF from schizophrenics or patients with neurological disease, nor between animals injected with CPE + ve CSF and animals injected with CPE – ve CSF. The numbers of offspring produced and surviving did not differ between the groups. We conclude that the original findings were due to factors unconnected with the nature of the injected material.