Association analysis of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene polymorphisms with early-onset schizophrenia in the Chinese population

Abstract

Objective To investigate the relationship between the brain-derived neurotrophic factor（BDNF) gene Tag SNPs(rs11030101 and rs6265) and early-onset schizophrenia in the Chinese Han population. Methods The tag single nucleotide polymorphisms（tag SNPs) rs11030101 and rs6265 in the BDNF gene were genotyped in 360 early-onset schizophrenics and 399 controls subjects.Single nucleotide polymorphism association and haplotype analysis were performed. Results (1) There were significantly difference in allele and genotype frequencies between patients and control subjects for rs11030101 (χ2=5.13, df=1, P=0.024; χ2=6.12, df=2, P=0.047) and haplotypes A-Val and T-Val (χ2=7.96, P=0.005；χ2=8.53, P=0.004）,and the difference in allele frequencies was still statistically significant after Bonferroni correction（P=0.048）.(2) Stratification of the study by gender of the samples yielded significant evidence for an association with the polymorphisms rs11030101 in female population (genotype-wise: χ2=7.76, df=2, P=0.021), and the difference still existed after Bonferroni correction（P=0.042）. The haplotype analysis revealed that there was significant differences between patients and control subjects for haplotypes T-Val and T-Met（χ2=6.90, P=0.009；χ2=4.60, P=0.032）in the female population. Conclusions The BDNF gene may play important roles in the susceptibility to early-onset and female schizophrenia in the Chinese population. Key words: Schizophrenia; Brain-derived neurotrophic factor; Polymorphism, single nucleotide