An association between PLA2G6 and PLA2G4C gene polymorphisms and schizophrenia risk and illness severity in a Croatian population.

We investigated the allele and genotype frequency of the rs4375 and rs1549637 polymorphisms in phospholipase A2 (PLA2)G6 and PLA2G4C genes in 203 patients with schizophrenia and 191 controls in a Croatian population. We hypothesized that these polymorphic variations might influence the age of schizophrenia onset and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale psychopathology (PANSS) data. We detected a significant overrepresentation of the PLA2G6-CT and PLA2G4C-AT genotype combination in patients compared with controls (14.7% vs. 7.3%, P < 0.05). The combined PLA2G6/PLA2G4C heterozygosity was associated with about a two-fold higher schizophrenia risk. We found no significant influence of the PLA2G6 and PLA2G4C polymorphisms on mean age at first hospital admission (P > 0.05) and that the investigated polymorphisms significantly influenced the clinical psychopathology only in male patients. The PLA2G4C polymorphism accounted for approximately 12% of negative symptom severity; whereas, the PLA2G6/PLA2G4C interaction contributed to a similar extent to total PANSS symptom variations.

Polymorphisms in PLA2G6 and PLA2G4C genes for calcium-independent phospholipase A2 do not contribute to attenuated niacin skin flush response in schizophrenia patients.

We hypothesized that attenuated niacin skin flushing in schizophrenia patients might be associated with polymorphic variants in PLA2G6 and PLA2G4C genes (rs4375 and rs1549637 variations) which encode calcium-independent phospholipase A2 beta (iPLA2ß) and cytosolic phospholipase A2 gamma (cPLA2γ) enzymes. The iPLA2ß and cPLA2γ may play an important role in niacin-mediated signaling; in addition to their major role - mediating phospholipids remodeling, which alters membrane receptors and signal transduction, they regulate the reservoir of arachidonic acid for prostaglandins synthesis. Skin response to topical niacin of 0.1M, 0.01M, 0.001M and 0.0001M concentrations in 75 schizophrenia patients was rated using the method of volumetric niacin response (VNR). Neither PLA2G6 nor PLA2G4C gene polymorphisms were significantly associated with VNR values. Furthermore, polymorphisms׳ synergy on niacin skin flushing was also not detected.

Association between PLA2G4C minisatellite polymorphism and schizophrenia / 吉林大学学报(医学版)

Objective To investigate the association between the minisatellite polymorphism in the first exon of PLA2G4C gene and schizophrenia, and to reveal the important role of DNA sequence polymorphism in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia.Methods The minisatellite polymorphisms in the first exon of PLA2G4C gene in 91 patients with schizophrenia (case group)and 81 healthy persons (control group)were detected with PCR-sequencing analysis.The chi-square (χ2 )goodness-of-fit test was used to analyze the distribution of the PLA2G4C minisatellite polymorphism in various groups and to explore the association between the minisatellite polymorphism in the first exon of PLA2G4C gene and schizophrenia. Results There were minisatellite polymorphisms in PLA2G4C gene.Three kinds of polymorphisms 1×27 bp,2×27 bp and 3×27 bp were found by sequencing.The distribution of allelic frequencies at PLA2G4C polymorphism showed no statistical significance between case group and control group (P>0.05 ). No statistically significant difference was found in 3-homozygous haplotypes in PLA2G4C gene between case group and control group (P>0.05).At the same time,there was no statistically significant difference between 3-heterozygous haplotypes in PLA2G4C gene between case group and control group (P>0.05).Conclusion The minisatellite polymorphisms in the first exon of PLA2G4C gene are found,but the minisatellite polymorphism in the first exon of PLA2G4C gene may be not associated with the occurrence of schizophrenia.