Association Study of ANK3 Polymorphism and Risk of Schizophrenia

OBJECTIVES: Previous genome-wide association studies have indicated the association between ankyrin 3 (ANK3) and the vulnerability of schizophrenia. We investigated the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) covering the whole ANK3 locus and schizophrenia in the Korean population. METHODS: The study subjects were 582 patients with schizophrenia and 502 healthy controls. Thirty-eight tag SNPs on ANK3 and five additional SNPs showing significant association with schizophrenia in previous studies were genotyped. RESULTS: Three (rs10994181, rs16914791, rs1938526) of 43 SNPs showed a nominally significant association (p < 0.05) with at least one genotype model. But none of these associations remained significant after adjusting for multiple testing errors with Bonferroni's correction. CONCLUSIONS: We could not identify a significant association between ANK3 and schizophrenia in the Korean population. However, three SNPs showing an association signal with nominal significance need to be investigated in future studies with higher statistical power and more specific phenotype crossing the current diagnostic categories.

Staphylococcus aureus Colonization in Acute and Chronic Skin Lesions of Patients with Atopic Dermatitis

BACKGROUND: Staphylococcus aureus (SA) has peculiar abilities to colonize the skin in atopic dermatitis (AD) patients. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine the colonization rates of SA in acute and chronic skin lesions of AD patients, to find any difference in colonization rates according to age and to find the influences of total immunoglobulin E (IgE) and eosinophil counts to the colonization of SA. METHODS: We evaluated the total IgE level and eosinophil counts, and cultured SA from the skin lesions of 687 AD patients (131 acute and 556 chronic skin lesions) and 247 control urticaria patients (July 2009 to November 2010; Samsung Medical Center Dermatology Clinic, Seoul, Korea). RESULTS: The SA colonization rates were 74%, 38% and 3% in acute, chronic skin lesions and control skin, respectively, and they were increased with age in AD patients. The colonization rate in chronic skin lesions was higher in the high IgE/eosinophilia groups as compared to the normal IgE/eosinophil groups. CONCLUSION: The SA colonization rate was higher in AD patients and especially in acute lesions, and had a tendency to increase with age. As the colonization rates were only higher in the high IgE/eosinophilia groups of chronic skin lesions, we suggested that SA may invade the skin through barrier defects in acute skin lesions, but the colonization in chronic lesions may be orchestrated through many different factors.

Association Analyses of ST8SIA2 Genetic Polymorphisms with Schizophrenia in the Korean Population

OBJECTIVES: ST8SIA2 (ST8 alpha-N-acetyl-neuraminide alpha-2, 8-sialyltransferase 2 gene) is located at 15q26, a susceptibility locus for schizophrenia. Some previous research had indicated that single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the promoter region of ST8SIA2 were associated with schizophrenia in Japanese and Chinese populations. We investigated the association between SNPs in the promoter region of ST8SIA2 and schizophrenia in the Korean population. METHODS: The study subjects were 190 Korean patients with schizophrenia and 190 healthy controls. We performed allelic, genotypic, and haplotypic association analyses for rs3759916, rs3759915 and rs3759914 of ST8SIA2. All genotypes were determined by direct sequencing. RESULTS: In the genotype-based analysis, rs3759914 showed a nominally significant association with schizophrenia under recessive genotypic model (p = 0.047). However, this association did not remain statistically significant after correction for multiple testing. Both allelic and haplotype analyses did not show any significant association. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that ST8SIA2 does not play a major role in the susceptibility to schizophrenia in the Korean population. Further studies with a larger number of subjects are required to definitively rule out minor effects of this gene on schizophrenia vulnerability.

IL-31 Serum Protein and Tissue mRNA Levels in Patients with Atopic Dermatitis

BACKGROUND: Severe pruritus is the primary symptom in atopic dermatitis (AD). Recently, the novel cytokine IL-31 has been implicated in the itching associated with AD. OBJECTIVE: We performed this study to determine whether IL-31 serum levels are elevated in AD patients and to better characterize the relationship between serum IL-31 level and other established laboratory parameters. METHODS: We recruited 55 AD patients, 34 with allergic type AD and 21 with non-allergic type AD, and 38 healthy, non-atopic controls. We checked the laboratory values, severity score, and serum IL-31 levels in all patients and controls, and IL-31 mRNA levels in lesion skin were measured in 13 subjects with AD and in four controls. RESULTS: AD patients displayed significantly higher levels of serum IL-31 that were associated with serum IgE, disease severity, and subjective itch intensity. In AD patients, IL-31 mRNA levels from the lesional skin samples also correlated with serum IL-31 level. CONCLUSION: IL-31 is likely one of the many mediators inducing inflammation and pruritus in AD. Although our limited sample size prevents us from making any definitive conclusions, our data demonstrate a strong correlation between IL-31 mRNA level and serum IL-31 protein level, which has never been reported before. Moreover, we found correlations between serum IL-31 level and serum IgE, eosinophil cationic protein, disease severity, and subject itch intensity in certain degrees in AD patients.

Serum Zinc Levels in Patients with Atopic Dermatitis / 대한피부과학회지

BACKGROUND: Zinc is one of the most widely studied metals in childhood diseases and dermatological conditions, and low serum zinc levels have been reported in children with atopic dermatitis (AD). As a recent experiment has shown that a zinc deficient diet results in AD-like eruptions in mice, there is a positive relationship between AD and decreased zinc level. OBJECTIVE: The purposes of this study were to investigate the prevalence of zinc deficiency in patients with AD and to compare the levels with those in non-AD patients. We also compared the prevalence of zinc deficiency in each patient with AD who had acute and chronic lesions. Furthermore, we investigated the relationship between low serum zinc levels and skin Staphylococcus aureus colonization rate. METHODS: We collected blood samples to check serum zinc level and performed skin swabs for bacterial cultures from 388 patients with AD and 234 control patients with urticaria who visited Samsung Medical Center, Department of Dermatology from February 2010 to November 2010. RESULTS: Approximately 52% of the patients with AD had low serum zinc levels. In patients older than 20 years old, the prevalence of zinc deficiency was 42.5% in patients with AD and 52.6% in patients with urticaria (p=0.084). The percentages of patients with a low serum zinc level were 42.9% and 42.4% respectively in patients with AD and acute lesions and in patients with AD and chronic lesions. However, we found no significant significance in the skin S. aureus colonization rates between the low serum zinc level group and the normal serum zinc level group. CONCLUSION: It was confirmed that >50% of patients with AD had low serum zinc levels. However, no significant differences in serum zinc levels were found between the AD and urticaria groups >20 years old or between the acute skin lesion and chronic skin lesion groups. Furthermore, serum zinc level did not affect S. aureus colonization in the skin in patients with AD or non-AD patients.