Shinohara Manabu, Mizushima Hiroko, Hirano Masami, Shioe Kunihiko, Nakazawa Mie, Hiejima Yoshimitsu, Ono Yutaka, Kanba Shigenobu
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine and Engineering, the University of Yamanashi, Nakakoma, Japan.
J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2004 Mar;29(2):134-7.
The dopaminergic system is associated with feelings of pleasure and reward and with positive hedonic processes related to food, sexual activity and certain substances. Because it is recognized that patients who have eating disorders with binge-eating behaviour have a high comorbidity of substance dependence, we examined the association between the variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) polymorphism in the 3; untranslated region of the dopamine transporter gene (DAT1) and eating disorders with binge-eating behaviour.
The subjects were 90 female Japanese patients with eating disorders diagnosed using DSM-IV; they were compared with 115 healthy female controls. Genomic DNA was extracted from whole blood, and standard polymerase chain reaction testing was performed. We compared the frequencies of a short allele (7 or 9 repeats) and a long allele (10 or 11 repeats) in both groups.
In the group who had an eating disorder with binge-eating behaviour, the frequency of a short allele was significantly higher compared with the control group.
It seems plausible that the association between the DAT1 VNTR and binge-eating behaviour indicates that dysregulation of dopamine reuptake may act as a common pathophysiologic mechanism in eating disorders with binge-eating behaviour and in disorders related to substance use.
多巴胺能系统与愉悦感、奖赏感以及与食物、性活动和某些物质相关的积极享乐过程有关。由于人们认识到患有伴有暴饮暴食行为的饮食失调症的患者物质依赖的共病率很高，我们研究了多巴胺转运体基因（DAT1）3′非翻译区可变数目串联重复序列（VNTR）多态性与伴有暴饮暴食行为的饮食失调症之间的关联。
研究对象为90名使用《精神疾病诊断与统计手册》第四版（DSM-IV）诊断为饮食失调症的日本女性患者；将她们与115名健康女性对照进行比较。从全血中提取基因组DNA，并进行标准聚合酶链反应检测。我们比较了两组中短等位基因（7或9个重复）和长等位基因（10或11个重复）的频率。
在患有伴有暴饮暴食行为的饮食失调症的组中，短等位基因的频率显著高于对照组。
DAT1 VNTR与暴饮暴食行为之间的关联似乎表明，多巴胺再摄取失调可能是伴有暴饮暴食行为的饮食失调症以及与物质使用相关疾病的共同病理生理机制，这似乎是合理的。
