Peroxisomal Defects and Familial Risk for Bipolar Disorder

Overall Study Design: This study entails collecting fasting venous blood (20 ml) from, and administering the 'omega-3 questionnaire' to, subjects being recruited from ongoing National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-sponsored trials within the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Specifically, blood will be collected from 20 healthy controls (i.e., no personal or family history of any Axis I mood disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV \[DSM-IV\]) and 20 asymptomatic high-risk (i.e., have a biological parent with BD-I) adolescents (aged 10-18 years old) recruited for study MH077138 (UC-IRB #: 07-04-10-03, BITREC Project 3; PI: DelBello), 20 ultra-high risk (i.e., have a biological parent with BD-I and a Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) diagnosis) recruited for study MH083924 (UC-IRB #: 04-09-15-03, CO-Principal Investigators DelBello/McNamara), and 20 adolescents who are admitted for their first hospitalization and who have a diagnosis of BD-I recruited for study MH080973 (UC-IRB #: 08-10-30-01, Principal Investigator: DelBello). Blood will then be processed, and de-identified tubes sent to the Kennedy Krieger Institute, Peroxisomal Diseases Section, to determine the following measures of peroxisomal function: (1) plasma very long chain fatty acids (C24:0 \& C26:0) concentrations, (2) plasma bile acid C27 intermediate (dehydrocrepenynic acid {DHCA},tetrahydrocannabinolic acid {THCA})concentrations, (3) plasma pipecolic acid concentrations, and (4) Red Blood Cell (RBC) plasmalogen concentrations. Additionally, RBC fatty acid composition will be determined by gas chromatography, and platelet function and plasma inflammatory markers assayed using commercially available kits according to manufacturer's instructions.