Common variants in major histocompatibility complex region and TCF4 gene are significantly associated with schizophrenia in Han Chinese.
BACKGROUND
Schizophrenia is a complex major psychiatric disorder affecting ∼1% of the world population. Recently, in a genome-wide association study and a follow-up in Caucasians, Stefansson et al. examined 7662 schizophrenic cases and 29053 normal control subjects and reported seven common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that were significantly (>10(-8)) associated with schizophrenia.


METHODS
To investigate whether these risk SNPs were significantly associated in Han Chinese, we analyzed the seven SNPs in 2496 schizophrenia patients and 5184 normal control subjects. Because only three of the seven SNPs were polymorphic in Han Chinese, we genotyped two additional common SNPs from the same risk regions.


RESULTS
Three SNPs, rs6932590 (p = .00096), rs3131296 (p = 1.29 × 10(-6)), and rs3130375 (p = 1.76 × 10(-5)), mapping to the major histocompatibility complex region and one SNP rs2958182 (p = 3.64 × 10(-6)) located in the TCF4 gene were significant in our sample set. A meta-analysis using published genome-wide association study results also supported our findings.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results confirm that common risk factors in the major histocompatibility complex region and TCF4 gene are associated with schizophrenia in Han Chinese, but our results fail to show an association with SNP rs12807809 in the NRGN gene.
Li
Tao
T
Bio-X Center, Bio-X Center, Key Laboratory for the Genetics of Developmental and Neuropsychiatric Disorders Ministry of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
Li
Zhiqiang
Z
Chen
Peng
P
Zhao
Qian
Q
Wang
Ti
T
Huang
Ke
K
Li
Junyan
J
Li
You
Y
Liu
Jie
J
Zeng
Zhen
Z
Feng
Guoyin
G
He
Lin
L
Shi
Yongyong
Y
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People / Q000208:ethnology / Q000235:genetics; D051778:Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008285:Major Histocompatibility Complex / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000208:ethnology / Q000235:genetics*; D000073940:Transcription Factor 4; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics*; D055815:Young Adult
D051778:Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors; C532096:TCF4 protein, human; D000073940:Transcription Factor 4; D014157:Transcription Factors