Lack of association between the hKCa3 gene and Japanese schizophrenia patients.
Several researchers have suggested an association between large numbers of CAG repeats in the hKCa3 gene and schizophrenia. However, these reports remain inconclusive and require further investigation. We tried to replicate these results in 112 Japanese schizophrenia patients and 102 control subjects of highly matched age and sex by applying an allele dichotomization model. No association was found. The overall distributions of allele frequencies were not significantly different between schizophrenic patients and normal control subjects. In addition, we tested the association between the size of the CAG repeats and the scores on three dimensions (positive and negative symptoms, and disorganization), but no significant results were obtained. Our results do not support the involvement of the hKCa3 gene in schizophrenia, at least in the Japanese population.
Imamura
A
A
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Nagasaki University School of Medicine, Nagasaki, Japan. f1042@cc.nagasaki-u.ac.jp
Tsujita
T
T
Kayashima
T
T
Oda
R
R
Kikuchi
T
T
Hayashida
M
M
Hamada
A
A
Fujimaru
K
K
Matsumoto
S
S
Hashida
A
A
Nakane
Y
Y
Okazaki
Y
Y
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000483:Alleles; D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D015221:Potassium Channels / Q000235:genetics*; D024681:Potassium Channels, Calcium-Activated; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000235:genetics*; D051640:Small-Conductance Calcium-Activated Potassium Channels; D018911:Trinucleotide Repeats
C406328:KCNN3 protein, human; D015221:Potassium Channels; D024681:Potassium Channels, Calcium-Activated; D051640:Small-Conductance Calcium-Activated Potassium Channels