Monoamine oxidase a gene is associated with borderline personality disorder.
OBJECTIVE
Monoamine oxidase A is a mitochondrial enzyme involved in the degradation of certain neurotransmitter amines: serotonin and norepinephrine. As for its role in aggression, impulsivity, suicide and mood liability, monoamine oxidase A can be considered a functional candidate in borderline personality disorder.


METHODS
To test for this hypothesis we genotyped two polymorphic markers in monoamine oxidase A gene, a promoter VNTR and an rs6323 (T941G) in exon 8, in 111 Caucasian borderline personality disorder patients and 289 Caucasian healthy controls. Association analyses using individual marker and haplotype data were performed by a program of COCAPHASE in UNPHASED (MRC Human Genome Mapping Project Resource Centre, Cambridge, UK).


RESULTS
We found that the borderline personality disorder patients had a high frequency of the high activity VNTR alleles (chi=4.696, P=0.03) and a low frequency of the low activity haplotype (chi=5.089, P=0.02).


CONCLUSIONS
These results show that the monoamine oxidase A gene may play an important role in the etiological development of the borderline personality disorder.
Ni
Xingqun
X
Neurogenetics Section, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. xingqun_ni@camh.net
Sicard
Tricia
T
Bulgin
Natalie
N
Bismil
Ramprasad
R
Chan
Kirsten
K
McMain
Shelley
S
Kennedy
James L
JL
D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D005091:Exons; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018598:Minisatellite Repeats; D008995:Monoamine Oxidase / Q000235:genetics*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics
D008995:Monoamine Oxidase