Association analysis of the tyrosine hydroxylase gene polymorphisms with early-onset schizophrenia in Chinese population

Abstract

Objective To investigate the relationship between the tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) gene and early-onset schizophrenia in Chinese Han population. Methods The tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (tag SNPs) rs2070762, rs6356 and rs11042978 in the TH gene were genotyped in 315 early-onset schizophrenics (188 male patients,127 female patients) and 391 controls subjects (219 males,172 females). Single nucleotide polymorphism association and haplotype analysis were performed. Results (1) No statistically significant differences were found in allele or genotype between patients and normal controls for rs2070762(χ2=1.12, df=1, P=0.290；χ2=1.75, df=2, P=0.417) and rs6356 ( χ2=1.71, df=1, P=0.190；χ2=2.86, df=2, P=0.239).There were significant differences in allele and genotype frequencies between patients and normal control for rs11042978 allele (χ2=4.47, df=1, P=0.034) and genotype (χ2=6.35, df=2, P=0.042), but the difference did not existed after Bonferroni correction in allele frequencies (P＞0.05）. (2)The analysis revealed that there were significant differences between patients and normal control subjects for haplotypes A-C-G of rs2070762-rs6356-rs11042978 (χ2=6.35,P=0.012)，but the difference did not existed after Permutation test in haplotype frequencies(χ2=4.84, P=0.104). Conclusions The TH gene may not play major roles in the susceptibility to early-onset schizophrenia in Chinese population. Key words: Schizophrenia; Tyrosine hydroxylase gene; Polymorphism,single nucleotide