ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Synapsin III near VCFS region on chromosome 22q affects. It could be an interesting candidate gene for schizophrenia. D22S280 is a highly polymorphic genetic marker residing in synapsin III. We examined association of D22S280 marker on synapsin III with Korean patients with schizophrenia. METHODS: The subjects were 46 male Korean patients with schizophrenia and 60 male normal controls. Using polymerase chain reaction, gel electrophoresis, ABI 310 genetic analyzer, and GeneScan Collection 3.1 software, we confirmed genotypes of D22S280 marker. We examined Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and case-control association using SAS/Genetic 9.1.3. RESULTS: Genotypes of both schizophrenia and control groups were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. We could not find any significant statistical differences in allele-wise(chi-square=10.4, df=6, p=0.098) and genotype-wise (chi-square=22.1 df=19, p=0.258) analyses of D22S280 marker between schizophrenia and normal controls. Individual allele analyses with df=1 showed significant differences in A1(p=0.025) and A7(p=0.034) allele, which were not significant following Bonferroni corrections(A1 : p=0.177, A7 : p=0.235). CONCLUSION: We couldn't find any association between schizophrenia and the synapsin III gene. Given the small number of subjects studied, further investigations are needed.