title: Apoptotic engulfment pathway and schizophrenia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Apoptosis has been speculated to be involved in schizophrenia. In a previously study, we reported the association of the MEGF10 gene with the disease. In this study, we followed the apoptotic engulfment pathway involving the MEGF10, GULP1, ABCA1 and ABCA7 genes and tested their association with the disease.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ten, eleven and five SNPs were genotyped in the GULP1, ABCA1 and ABCA7 genes respectively for the ISHDSF and ICCSS samples. In all 3 genes, we observed nominally significant associations. Rs2004888 at GULP1 was significant in both ISHDSF and ICCSS samples (p = 0.0083 and 0.0437 respectively). We sought replication in independent samples for this marker and found highly significant association (p = 0.0003) in 3 Caucasian replication samples. But it was not significant in the 2 Chinese replication samples. In addition, we found a significant 2-marker (rs2242436 * rs3858075) interaction between the ABCA1 and ABCA7 genes in the ISHDSF sample (p = 0.0022) and a 3-marker interaction (rs246896 * rs4522565 * rs3858075) amongst the MEGF10, GULP1 and ABCA1 genes in the ICCSS sample (p = 0.0120). Rs3858075 in the ABCA1 gene was involved in both 2- and 3-marker interactions in the two samples.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  From these data, we concluded that the GULP1 gene and the apoptotic engulfment pathway are involved in schizophrenia in subjects of European ancestry and multiple genes in the pathway may interactively increase the risks to the disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavior Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA. xchen@vcu.edu
authors.forename: Xiangning
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Cuie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: F Anthony
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: O'Neill
authors.forename: Dermot
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Walsh
authors.forename: Ayman H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Fanous
authors.forename: Kodavali V
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Chowdari
authors.forename: Vishwajit L
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Nimgaonkar
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: Sibylle G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Schwab
authors.forename: Dieter B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Wildenauer
authors.forename: Ronglin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Che
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Yongyong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Xiong-Jian
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Todd L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.forename: Zhongming
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Kenneth S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Kendler
mesh_terms: D064286:ATP Binding Cassette Transporter 1; D018528:ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters / Q000502:physiology*; D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing / Q000502:physiology*; D017209:Apoptosis; D044466:Asian People; D002681:China; D005006:Ethnicity; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D005819:Genetic Markers; D005838:Genotype; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000208:ethnology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014481:United States; D044465:White People
chemical_list: C577836:ABCA1 protein, human; C411895:ABCA7 protein, human; D064286:ATP Binding Cassette Transporter 1; D018528:ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters; D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing; C454119:GULP1 protein, human; D005819:Genetic Markers; C522055:MEGF10, human; D008565:Membrane Proteins