A case-control study of genetic association of the PLA2G4A gene with schizophrenia in a Chinese population.

摘要

Summary Several studies have reported that the PLA2G4A gene was associated with schizophrenia (Hudson et al., 1996; Peet et a/., 1998; Wei et al., 1998), although replication of the PLA2G4A finding has been inconsistent. This study attempted to reevaluate the PLA2G4A association in case-control design among a Chinese population. We recruited 498 unrelated individuals with schizophrenia and 299 well-matched control patients in age, sex and ethnicity. The diagnosis was made independently by at least two psychiatrists following a clinical interview with the International Classification of Disease-10 criteria. It was restricted to schizophrenia only. The Banl-single nucleotide polymorphism, an A to G base change in intron 1 of the gene, was detected by PCR-based genotyping methods as described in previous studies (Peet et a/., 1998; Wei et al., 1998). The A allele corresponds to Al and the G allele to A2. The chi~2 goodness-of-fit test showed that the genotypic distributions of the Banl-single nucleotide polymorphism deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in the patient group (chi~2 = 5.2, P = 0.023) but not in the control group (chi~2 = 0.17, P = 0.684). Frequency of the AA genotype was higher in the patient group than in the control group although this did not reach a significance level (chi~2 = 1.49, d.f. = 2, P = 0.474). Allele frequencies were 649 (A) and 347 (G) in the patient group, and 378 (A) and 220 (G) in the control group. The chi~2 test did not show allelic association between the two groups (chi~2 = 0.62, P= 0.431). These samples of 498 cases and 299 controls had a power of 79% for detection of a small effect size and 100% for detection of a medium effect size. As the PLA2G4A gene has recently been found to be associated with negative symptoms of schizophrenia in the Chinese population (Tao et al., 2005), genetic abnormalities of the gene may be involved in a subgroup of the illness.