Reduction of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme in Substantia Nigra in Early-Onset Schizophrenia

Abstract

To the Editor: We have recently shown that the activity of angiotensin-converting enzyme in the substantia nigra of animal brain is localized to nerve terminals or axons whose cell bodies lie in the corpus striatum.1 The activity of the enzyme is reduced 80 per cent in the substantia nigra reticulata of patients dying of Huntington's disease, with a smaller reduction in the corpus striatum.1 These biochemical changes in the substantia nigra in Huntington's disease probably reflect pathologic alterations secondary to neuronal cell loss in the striatum.2 We have now measured the activity of angiotensin-converting enzyme in several brain areas of. No extract is available for articles shorter than 400 words. © 1979, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.