Volume 18 Issue 5, May 2013

Confocal microscopy image of a section of the mouse hippocampus. GFAP₊ (red) and DISC1₊ (green) astrocytes are shown. HPLC chromatogram depicts a profile of different amino acids in the mouse brain, including D-serine, an NMDA receptor co-agonist. DISC1 binds to and stabilizes serine racemase to regulate production of D-serine. The findings demonstrate for the first time a role for DISC1 in astrocytes and link DISC1 and D-serine previously thought to be independently involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. For more info on this topic, please refer to the article by Ma et al. on pages 557–567.