Study Of Association Between Catechol-O-methyltransferase Gene Polymorphism And Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a common mental disorder with a life-time prevalence of 1% in the general population worldwide, the life-time prevalence is 0.7% in China. The large suffering population has brought heavy economic burden to the society and families, threatening the safety and stability of society. Therefore, it urgently important for the medical field and the whole society to determine the ecological factors of schizophrenia so as to preventive and cure it. Epidemiological study has indicated that the mechanism of schizophrenia is mainly related to genetic components. Although genetic component may play a role in schizophrenia, it is not a simple Mendelian disease but it looks like a complex disease with a polygenic mechanism. Genome-wide scanning shows that all the chromosomes except for chromosome 19, 21 and Y, may contain a schizophrenia susceptibility gene, while there are only 6 chromosome regions whose positive regions could have a better reproducibility. They are1q21-22,5q22-23,6p24-21,8p22-21,13q14-33 and 22q11-12. This study was designed to search for a susceptibility gene for schizophrenia by screening three SNPs on catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT)gene, a candidate gene of schizophrenia in 22q11.2 gene. This study used a family-based LD analysis in which the family trios, consisting of father, mother and affected offspring were recruited. They were all Chinese Han decent in North China. Polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR–RFLP)were adopted to examine individual genotype. Statistical software SPSS and EXCEL were used to handle the data on genotype. Goodness of fit χ2 test was used to detect whether SNPs distribution in the sample population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium Multifunctional genetic statistical software were used to detect whether the tested SNPs locus was associated with schizophrenia by two family-based LD analysis, the haplotype relative risk...