title: Common sequence variants in the major histocompatibility complex region associate with cerebral ventricular size in schizophrenia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Because of evidence from genetic linkage and genome-wide association studies, as well as suggested involvement of infection, the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region on chromosome 6p21.3-22.1 has been implicated in the development of schizophrenia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Here, we investigated how gene variants across the MHC region are associated with brain structure in a large ethnically homogenous sample (n = 420), including patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and other severe mental illness and healthy control subjects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We demonstrate highly significant associations between common gene markers in the MHC region and cerebral ventricular volume specifically in schizophrenia spectrum patients (uncorrected p values between 1.16 × 10⁻⁴ and 2.00 × 10⁻⁷). One single nucleotide polymorphism, rs2596532, survives Bonferroni correction for multiple testing across all single nucleotide polymorphisms and brain structure measures (adjusted p value 5.59 × 10⁻⁴).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results indicate that MHC variants are implicated in characteristic brain abnormalities of schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Medicine, Department of Biostatistics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. Ingrid.Agartz@medisin.uio.no
authors.forename: Ingrid
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Agartz
authors.forename: Andrew Anand
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Lars M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Rimol
authors.forename: Cecilie B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Hartberg
authors.forename: Anders M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Dale
authors.forename: Ingrid
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Melle
authors.forename: Srdjan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Djurovic
authors.forename: Ole A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Andreassen
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D002552:Cerebral Ventricles / Q000473:pathology*; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D005838:Genotype; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008285:Major Histocompatibility Complex / Q000235:genetics*; D059906:Neuroimaging / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*