title: Association study of HLA-A gene and schizophrenia in Han Chinese from Taiwan.
abstract: Dysregulation of the immune response has been proposed as a precipitating factor of schizophrenia, and human leukocyte antigens (HLA) play a critical role in regulating the cascade of immunological reaction. Hence, many studies have investigated the relationship between the HLA system and schizophrenia. HLA is a complex gene family that contains several highly polymorphic genes, while the HLA-A gene is the most often studied gene to be associated with schizophrenia in the literature. A recent study reported that the interaction of the HLA-A10 allele and Chlamydial infection was highly associated with schizophrenia in a German population, which prompted us to investigate whether the HLA-A gene was also associated with schizophrenia in our population. Using a sequencing-based HLA typing method, we determined the HLA-A genotypes in 377 Han Chinese patients with schizophrenia (214 males, 163 females) and 321 non-psychotic Han Chinese control subjects (164 males, 157 females) from Taiwan. In total, 26 DNA-defined HLA-A alleles were identified in this sample. However, no significant differences of these allelic frequencies were found between the patients and the control subjects, suggesting that the HLA-A gene was unlikely a major risk factor of schizophrenia in this sample. As different populations have different HLA polymorphisms, an examination of the relationship of other HLA genes and schizophrenia in our population, with a larger sample size, is warranted in the future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Tzu-Chi Medical Center and University, Hualien, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, Tzu-Chi University, and Yuli Veterans Hospital, Hualien, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yu-Lin
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Chao
authors.forename: Yu-Chih
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Ding-Lieh
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: Jen-Yeu
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ying-Chieh
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: I-Ching
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: Ying-Jay
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Liou
authors.forename: Chia-Hsiang
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005838:Genotype; D015234:HLA-A Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000235:genetics*; D013624:Taiwan
chemical_list: D015234:HLA-A Antigens