Relationship between disrupted-in-schizophrinia-1 polymorphism and the abnormal brain structure in childhood and adolescence with schizophrenia / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the relationships of rs4658971 polymorphism of disrupted-in-schizophrinia-1 ( DISC1) gene with schizophrenia in children and adolescents and with the brain structure of such patients. Methods:(1) A total of 577 children and adolescents with schizophrenia were recruited from the Inpatient Department of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University from October 2010 to December 2018, and 516 healthy children were selected as the control group.The rs4658971 polymorphism of DISC1 gene was detected by restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). The differences of DISC1 genotype and allele frequencies between schizophrenia patients and healthy children were compared by Chi-square test.(2)One hundred and eighteen patients with the first-episode schizophrenia whose illness duration was no more than 12 months and 101 healthy children and adolescents were detected by 3.0T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The craniocerebral structures of patients with different DISC1 genotypes were analyzed by covariance with age as the covariant. Results:(1) The rs4658971 genotype frequencies(TT 6.6% vs.5.2%, TC 37.4% vs.38.4%, CC 56.0% vs.56.4%, χ2=0.91, P=0.63) and allele frequencies(C 74.70% vs.75.58%, T 25.30% vs.24.42%, χ2=0.23, P=0.63) of DISC1 gene in children and adolescents with schizophrenia were not significantly different from those in the healthy children.(2) Compared with the control group, the transverse diameter of the third ventricle was significantly enlarged in children and adolescent with schizophrenia [(4.68±1.41) mm vs.(4.06±1.36) mm, F=8.534, P=0.004], while the distance between the anterior feet of the lateral ventricle, the width of the caudate nucleus head and the thickness of the hippocampus were significantly reduced [(30.69±2.51) mm vs.(32.02±2.41) mm, (8.17±1.01) mm vs.(9.22±1.14) mm, (8.93±0.97) mm vs.(9.93±1.14) mm], and the differences were statistically significant( F=15.435, 40.201, 44.650, all P<0.001). The covariance analysis (with age as the covariant) showed that there was significant difference in the width of the caudate nucleus head between patients with CC genotype and those with CT+ TT genotype[(8.73±0.85) mm vs.(7.39±0.61) mm, F=41.376, P<0.001]. Conclusions:There are multiple brain structural changes in children and adolescents with first-episode schizophrenia.T allele carriers of DISC1 gene rs4658971 locus may be related to the reduced width of the caudate nucleus head in patients.