title: Monoamine oxidase a gene is associated with borderline personality disorder.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Neurogenetics Section, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. xingqun_ni@camh.net
authors.forename: Xingqun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.forename: Tricia
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sicard
authors.forename: Natalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bulgin
authors.forename: Ramprasad
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bismil
authors.forename: Kirsten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Shelley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McMain
authors.forename: James L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Kennedy
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D008995:Monoamine Oxidase