Lack of association between the norepinephrine transporter gene and major depression in a Han Chinese population.
OBJECTIVE
Although the physiological mechanisms contributing to the development of major depression remain unclear, several lines of evidence suggest that the catecholaminergic system involving the norepinephrine transporter (NET) is implicated in the etiology of major depression. This study aims to determine whether major depression is associated with the NET gene in a Han Chinese population.


METHODS
We analyzed the NET promoter T-182C polymorphism and another silent polymorphism G1287A in exon 9 of the NET gene with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based method in 216 patients with major depression and 210 unrelated, age-and sex-matched healthy control subjects. We interviewed all subjects with the Chinese Version of the Modified Schedule of Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Lifetime; major depressive disorder was diagnosed according to DSM-IV criteria. In addition, to reduce the clinical heterogeneity, we performed a subtype analysis with clinically important variables, such as family history of major affective disorder and age at onset of major depression.


RESULTS
No significant difference was observed between the patients and healthy control subjects in the genotype distributions and allele frequencies for the investigated NET polymorphisms. Similarly, no significant differences were found between more homogeneous subgroups of patients and normal control subjects.


CONCLUSIONS
This study suggests that the investigated polymorphisms in the NET gene are not major risk factors in increasing susceptibility to either major depression or its clinical subtypes in a Han Chinese population. However, larger replication studies with different ethnic samples are needed.
Chang
Chuan-Chia
CC
Department of Psychiatry, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
Lu
Ru-Band
RB
Chen
Chih-Lun
CL
Chu
Chi-Ming
CM
Chang
Hsin-An
HA
Huang
Cheng-Chang
CC
Huang
Yi-Lin
YL
Huang
San-Yuan
SY
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000483:Alleles; D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics*; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency / Q000235:genetics; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D050484:Norepinephrine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D012016:Reference Values; D013624:Taiwan
D050484:Norepinephrine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; C493227:SLC6A2 protein, human