title: Lack of an association between 5-HT receptor gene polymorphisms and suicide victims.
abstract: An association between serotonergic dysfunction in the brain and suicidal behavior has previously been suggested. The high affinity of some antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs to serotonin 6 (5-HT6) receptors, and the predominant localization of 5-HT6 receptors in some limbic regions, suggest that 5-HT6 receptors play a role in the pathogenesis of suicide. The objective of the present study was to examine the association between suicide victims and two polymorphisms of the 5-HT6 receptor gene: a biallelic polymorphism (267C/T) in exon 1 and a trinucleotide repeat polymorphism ([GCC](2/3)) in the 5'-upstream region of the gene. The two polymorphisms were genotyped in 163 suicide victims and 166 controls, and the distribution of genotype and allele frequencies between the two groups were compared. Haplotype frequencies of these two polymorphisms were estimated from genotypic data by the maximum-likelihood method. In both polymorphisms, there were no significant differences in genotype or allele frequencies between the suicide victims and the controls. Moreover, there were no significant differences in the haplotype distributions of these polymorphisms between the two groups. These findings suggest that it is unlikely that the 5-HT6 receptor gene is involved in the susceptibility to suicide.
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychiatry and Neurology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okamura
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Shirakawa
authors.forename: Naoki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nishiguchi
authors.forename: Hisae
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ono
authors.forename: Hideyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nushida
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ueno
authors.forename: Kiyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maeda
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005838:Genotype; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D011985:Receptors, Serotonin / Q000235:genetics*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D011985:Receptors, Serotonin; C097216:serotonin 6 receptor; D004247:DNA