ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between two polymorphisms (Intronic VNTR and 5-HTTLPR) of the serotonin transporter gene and schizophrenia. METHODS: A set of 314 schizophrenic trio samples collected from Shanghai, Xi'an and Jilin regions of China independently was subjected to analysis of the polymorphisms by transmission/disequilibrium test(TDT). RESULTS: No significantly preferential transmission of any allele was detected from both polymorphisms investigated. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the serotonin transporter gene is unlikely to have a major contribution to susceptibility to schizophrenia in Han Chinese population.
Subject(s)
Polymorphism, Genetic , Schizophrenia/genetics , Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins/genetics , Adult , Female , Genetic Predisposition to Disease/genetics , Humans , Male , Minisatellite Repeats/genetics , Nuclear Family , Polymerase Chain ReactionABSTRACT
Previous studies have reported genetic linkage evidence for a candidate gene of schizophrenia on chromosome 22q11 but no genes in this region have been really confirmed to be involved in the etiology of schizophrenia so far. Very recently, the proline dehydrogenase gene (PRODH), located in the most centromeric part of the 22q11 microdeletion region, has been reported to be strongly associated with schizophrenia from three sets of independent samples and the most significant evidence for association was derived from a single nucleotide polymorphism-PRODH*1945(T/C). We genotyped this polymorphism in 166 Chinese family trios with schizophrenia from East China. No evidence for preferential transmission of the PRODH*1945 alleles from parents to affected offsprings was found using either Transmission Disequilibrium Test (P=0.4) or Haplotype-based Haplotype Relative Risk analysis (P=0.35). Our results suggest that the 1945(T/C) polymorphism of the proline dehydrogenase gene is unlikely to play a major role in the susceptibility to schizophrenia in the Chinese population.
