Effects of and Polymorphisms on the Risk of Schizophrenia in Chinese Han Population.

PURPOSE

Several lines of evidence support the fact that the presence of oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathophysiological mechanisms of schizophrenia (SCZ). The glutathione peroxidases (GPXs) and glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are the major antioxidant enzymes. Polymorphic variants of and can affect the antioxidant activities of their encoded enzymes. This study explored the possible associations of the and gene polymorphisms and schizophrenia in Chinese Han population.

METHODS

DNA from 648 healthy controls and 617 schizophrenic patients was genotyped for single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs3957357 in and rs736775 in using a PCR-LDR genotyping assay. The χ test compared differences in genetic distributions between the two groups in a case-control study. The generalized multifactor dimensionality reduction (GMDR) was used to explore the interaction between the GSTA1 gene and the GPX3 gene on the risk of SCZ.

RESULTS

Significant differences in allelic and genotypic frequencies of rs3957357 were present between SCZ and control groups ( rs3957357 χ=6.172, =0.046 by genotype, χ=5.847, =0.016, odds ratio=1.329, 95% confidence interval=1.055-1.674 by allele). No significant differences in allelic or genotypic frequencies of rs736775 were detected between cases and controls ( rs736775: χ=2.058, =0.357 by genotype, χ=1.853, =0.173, odds ratio=1.131, 95% confidence interval=0.953-1.342 by allele). Moreover, the GMDR model showed that the interaction between rs3957357 and rs736775 was associated significantly with SCZ risk, =0.0107.

CONCLUSION

Our results suggest that rs3957357 SNP has an effect on the risk of SCZ and the interaction between rs3957357and rs736775 may affect the development of SCZ in Chinese Han population. However, these results should be validated by replication in different populations with large sample sizes.