Susceptibility for schizophrenia is not influenced by a functional insertion/deletion variant in the promoter of the serotonin transporter gene.
A possible dysregulation of serotonergic neurotransmission has been implicated in the aetiology of schizophrenic psychoses. In the present study we analysed allelic and genotypic variations of a recently described functional polymorphic region in the promoter of the human serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) and a variable tandem repeat (VNTR) in intron 2 of the 5-HTT gene. We investigated 413 unrelated individuals, 180 schizophrenic patients and 233 blood donors as controls. With regard to the 5-HTTLPR, both the schizophrenic and the control group did not significantly differ between genotype frequencies (chi2, p = 0.920) and allele frequencies (chi2, p = 0.836). The odds ratio for subjects with schizophrenia who were homozygous for the short allele was 1.04 (95% CI 0.59-1.84). No evidence of allelic association to specific schizophrenia subtypes was found. The 5-HTT associated VNTR also showed no significant differences between either the allelic or the genotypic distributions. Haplotype analysis revealed a significant overall linkage disequilibrium at a level of p = 0.00004. Our findings indicate that both polymorphisms are unlikely to play a substantial role in the genetic predisposition to schizophrenic disorders.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Würzburg, Germany.
G
G
Stöber
S
S
Jatzke
A
A
Heils
G
G
Jungkunz
E
E
Fuchs
M
M
Knapp
P
P
Riederer
K P
KP
Lesch
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D002872:Chromosome Deletion; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency / Q000235:genetics; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D015810:Linkage Disequilibrium; D008297:Male; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics*; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins; D018598:Minisatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000235:genetics*; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins
D002352:Carrier Proteins; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; C493230:SLC6A4 protein, human; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins