Low Phosphoinositide-Specific Phospholipase C Activity and Expression of Phospholipase C β₁ Protein in the Prefrontal Cortex of Teenage Suicide Subjects

OBJECTIVE: The enzyme phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC) is a component of the phosphoinositide signal transduction system. Other components of this system have been found to be abnormal in adults and adolescents who have committed suicide, and so the authors examined whether PI-PLC activity and protein expression of PLC isozymes are abnormal in postmortem brains of teenage suicide subjects. METHOD: PI-PLC activity and protein expression of the PLC β₁, δ₁, and γ₁ isozymes were examined in Brodmann’s areas 8 and 9 of postmortem brains obtained from 18 teenage suicide subjects and 18 matched comparison subjects. PI-PLC activity was determined by enzymatic assay, and protein expression of the PLC isozymes was determined by the Western blot technique. RESULTS: Compared with the normal subjects, the teenage suicide subjects had significantly lower PI-PLC activity and immunolabeling of the specific PLC β₁ isozyme in both membrane and cytosol fractions of Brodmann’s areas 8 and 9 combined (prefrontal cortex). There was also a significant correlation between PI-PLC activity and protein levels of the PLC β₁ isozyme in the brains of the teenage suicide subjects. There was no significant difference in PI-PLC activity or level of PLC β₁ protein between the suicide subjects with a history of mental disorders and those with no history of mental disorders; however, both groups had significantly lower PI-PLC activity and expression of PLC β₁ protein than the normal subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Low PI-PLC activity and expressed levels of the PLC β₁ isozyme in postmortem brains of suicide subjects may have clinical relevance in the pathophysiology of suicidal behavior.