Coron B, Campion D, Thibaut F, Dollfus S, Preterre P, Langlois S, Vasse T, Moreau V, Martin C, Charbonnier F, Laurent C, Mallet J, Petit M, Frebourg T
Groupe de Recherche sur la Schizophrénie, Université de Rouen, Centre Hospitalier Spécialisé du Rouvray, Sotteville Les Rouen, France.
Psychiatry Res. 1996 Jun 1;62(3):221-6. doi: 10.1016/0165-1781(96)02933-2.
Monoamine oxidases (MAO) A and B, which are encoded by two distinct genes located on the human X chromosome, are both involved in the oxidative metabolism of dopamine. Decreased levels of platelet MAO-B activity has been reported in patients with schizophrenia and genetic variation in MAO activity had been proposed as a significant factor in the etiology of this disease. We carried out an association study using two intragenic polymorphisms within the MAO-A and MAO-B genes in 110 schizophrenic patients and 87 control subjects. For each polymorphic marker, no significant difference in allelic frequencies was observed between patients and controls. Nevertheless, a trend toward an association between allele 1 of the MAO-B gene and paranoid schizophrenia was found. Our results do not support the hypothesis that inherited variants of MAO genes might play a major role in a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia. Since several previous reports found a low MAO-B platelet activity in patients with paranoid schizophrenia, the identification of polymorphisms related to enzyme activity would be useful.
