ABSTRACT
Genetic factors play an important role in the development of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and recently the neural maldevelopment hypothesis is suggested by neuropathological and neuroimaging studies. Neurotrophic factors, including ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), play a central role in the regulation of neural development. This study was designed to investigate the association between the null mutation of CNTF gene and schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in a Korean population. The CNTF gene were typed with polymerase chain reaction in 112 patients with schizophrenia, 81 with bipolar disorders and in 125 healthy controls. The distributions of the CNTF genotype in schizophrenic patients with N/N, N/M, M/M were 80 (71.4%), 32 (28.6%), 0 (0%), in bipolar disorders were 58 (71.6%), 23 (28.4%), 0 (0%) and in the controls were 94 (75.2%), 30 (24.0%), 1 (0.8%). The allele frequencies of the CNTF gene in schizophrenic patients with N and M were 192 (85.7%), 32 (14.3%), in bipolar disorders were 139 (85.8%), 23 (14.2%), and in the control were 218 (87.2%), 32 (12.8%). There were no differences in the genotype distributions and the allele frequencies of CNTF gene null mutation among the 3 groups. These results suggest CNTF gene null mutation is not causally related to the development of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in Korea.