Association study of serotonin transporter and monoamine oxidase A genes polymorphisms with antisocial personality disorder in Han Chinese male

Abstract

Objective To investigate whether the 5-HTT-VNTR, the EcoRV polymorphism of MAOA gene was associated with antisocial personality disorder (APD) in Han Chinese male criminal offenders. Method In a prison in Jiangsu, the male criminals were evaluated with the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire 4, and the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder was made based on the DSM-Ⅳ criteria. Altogether 118 criminal people with antisocial disorder were evaluated with the Barratt-11 scale, in which 60 cases of total score ≥ the median were as the high impulsion group. Another 250 male criminals without personality disorder and 300 healthy people were recruited as controls. The DNA fragments of 5-HTT-VNTR and MAOA-EcoRV were measured using PCR assay. Both allele frequencies and genotype frequencies among the groups were compared. Results ( 1 ) There were significant differences of alleles of the 5-HTT-VNTR and MAOA-EcoRV ( + ) frequency between 60 APD with high impulsiveness (12/12: 70.0%, 12/10:21.7%, 10/10: 8.3%, 71.7%) and normal controls ( 12/12: 84.7%, 12/10: 10.7%, 10/10: 4.7%,55.3%; x2 = 7.422, P = 0.024, x2 = 5.478, P = 0.019 ), while no significant differences between 118 APD ( 12/12:78.0%, 12/10: 14.4%, 10/10: 7.6%, 63.6% ) and normal controls ( x2 = 2.819, P = 0.244;x2 =2.347,P=0.126). (2)When two genetic locus were combined, the polyploidy of 12/12/- frequency was significantly increased in normal controls compared to 118 APD (x2 =7.164, P=0.007) and APD with high impulsiveness (x2 =9.590, P =0.002), respectively. There was significant difference of 12/12/+frequency only between APD with high impulsiveness and normal controls (x2 = 5.378, P = 0.020 ).Conclusion There may be an association between the 5-HTT-VNTR, MAOA-EcoRV polymorphisms and susceptibility to impulsiveness in male Han Chinese criminal offenders with antisocial personality disorder,with the polyploidy type of 12/12/- may play a role in the development of antisocial personality disorder. Key words: Serotonin plasma membrane transport proteins; Monoamine oxidase; Antisocial personality disorder; Barratt impulsiveness scale