Tsai Shih-Jen, Hong Chen-Jee, Liao Ding-Lieh, Chiang Chih-Hung
Department of Psychiatry, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Shih-Pai Road, Sec. 2, 11217, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2006 Feb;31(2):270-4. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2005.06.006. Epub 2005 Aug 19.
The action of androgens is mediated by the androgen receptors (ARs), which are located throughout the brain. The AR gene is implicated in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia because male siblings with schizophrenia share alleles at this gene at a rate higher than chance predicts, and differences in sex hormone function may explain the gender difference in schizophrenic manifestations. Since the shorter alleles of the AR CAG repeat polymorphism are associated with increased gene expression, we tested the hypothesis that the AR CAG repeat variant confers susceptibility to schizophrenia using a sample of 225 people with schizophrenia and 247 normal controls. Using the median AR repeat length in the normal group as the arbitrary cut-off point (<24 and >25 CAG repeats), the results show no association between the AR repeat length and schizophrenia in either sex. Furthermore. AR CAG repeat length did not affect the age of symptom onset in the schizophrenic population. Our findings suggest that it is unlikely that the AR CAG repeat polymorphism plays a major role in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Nevertheless, given that androgens affect cognitive function, violent behavior and mood, the effect of the AR CAG polymorphism on the clinical manifestations of schizophrenia may warrant further exploration.
雄激素的作用是由雄激素受体（ARs）介导的，这些受体遍布整个大脑。AR基因与精神分裂症的发病机制有关，因为患精神分裂症的男性同胞在该基因上共享等位基因的频率高于随机预测值，并且性激素功能的差异可能解释精神分裂症临床表现中的性别差异。由于AR CAG重复多态性的较短等位基因与基因表达增加有关，我们使用225名精神分裂症患者和247名正常对照样本，检验了AR CAG重复变异赋予精神分裂症易感性的假设。以正常组AR重复长度的中位数作为任意切点（<24和>25个CAG重复），结果显示无论男女，AR重复长度与精神分裂症之间均无关联。此外，AR CAG重复长度并未影响精神分裂症患者的症状发作年龄。我们的研究结果表明，AR CAG重复多态性在精神分裂症发病机制中不太可能起主要作用。然而，鉴于雄激素会影响认知功能、暴力行为和情绪，AR CAG多态性对精神分裂症临床表现的影响可能值得进一步探索。
