Abstract

The post-mortem brain research is an essential way for mental diseases. The author established “D-cell hypothesis of schizophrenia” induced from post-mortem brain studies of patients with schizophrenia, which showed cellular and molecular basis of paranoidhallucinatory state, progressive pathophysiology of schizophrenia, linking the neural stem cell (NSC) dysfunction hypothesis and dopamine (DA) hypothesis [1,2]. The D-cell is the aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC=DDC: dopa decarboxylase)-containing neuron lacking DA and serotonin, and produces trace amines, including β-phenylethylamine, tyramine and tryptamine. The D-cell hypothesis shows the importance of subventricular NSC functions in relation with striato-accumbal D-cell (D15~16) function and mesolimbic DA system, whereas NSC functional suppression due to stress, aging and alcohol, being the cause of paranoidhallucinatory state [2]. D-cell hypothesis also indicates prospectiveness of TAAR1 (trace amine-associated receptor, type 1) medicinal chemistry [3]. Here, I briefly report two clinical cases to verify D-cell hypothesis of pathophysiology of mental illnesses.