No Evidence for Association between Tyrosine Hydroxylase Gene Val81Met Polymorphism and Susceptibility to Tardive Dyskinesia in Schizophrenia.
OBJECTIVE
Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) is the rate-limiting enzyme in dopamine biosynthesis. Because the TH Val81Met polymorphism is located in the amino-terminal regulatory domain of the tetrameric enzyme, it is a candidate marker for susceptibility to dopamine-related traits. We investigated the hypothesis that TH Val81Met polymorphism can influence susceptibility to tardive dyskinesia (TD) in schizophrenia.


METHODS
TH Val81Met polymorphism was analyzed by PCR-based methods in 83 schizophrenic patients with TD and 126 schizophrenic patients without TD, matched for antipsychotic drug exposure and other relevant variables.


RESULTS
There was no significant association of the genotype and allele frequencies determined by the TH Val81Met polymorphism between TD and non-TD patients. In addition, there was no significant difference in terms of total Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale scores among the three genotype groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Within the limitations imposed by the size of the clinical sample, these findings suggest that the Val81Met polymorphism of the TH gene does not contribute significantly to the risk for TD.
Lee
Heon-Jeong
HJ
Department of Psychiatry, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Kang
Seung-Gul
SG
Choi
Jung-Eun
JE
Park
Young-Min
YM
Lim
Se-Won
SW
Rhee
Min Kyu
MK
Kim
Seung-Hyun
SH
Kim
Leen
L