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Maternal infection, small prenatal brain hemorrhages, and immune activation are prenatal risk factors for schizophrenia that may be linked to signaling by a small lipid molecule, lysophosphatidic acid (LPA). Present in blood and acting through ≥6 cell-surface G protein-coupled receptors, LPA affects cell proliferation, migration, process outgrowth, and apoptosis; in response to intracerebral insults, it induces production of cytokines (e.g., interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor). To learn more, investigators injected vehicle, LPA, or serum (which contains LPA and which has been used to generate schizophrenia models in mice) in utero into brain ventricles of mouse embryos.
At 8 weeks after delivery, LPA, serum, or both were associated with va…