Association Study of Serotonin Transporter Gene VNTR Polymorphism and Mood Disorders, Onset Age and Suicide Attempts in a Chinese Sample

Yen, Feng-Chang; Hou, Sheu-Jane; Wang, Jiunn-Kae; Tsai, Shih‐Jen

doi:10.1159/000071821

Cited by 26 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…No association was observed to bipolar disorder or suicidality in a Canadian family study 104 and in Canadian suicide attempters. 105 Similar negative findings were derived for Chinese mood disorder patients with suicidal history 106 or psychotic patients with suicidal behaviour. 95 Using DNA of Croatian suicide victims there was also no association between suicide and the VNTR-2 variants.…”

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confidence: 63%

Genetics of suicide

2006

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The concept that genetic factors contribute to the complex trait of suicidal behaviour has stimulated much work aimed at identifying susceptibility genes. So far molecular genetic studies focused on the serotonergic pathway as the intent to die and the lethality of suicide acts were related to the serotonergic system. Two genes have so far emerged as being involved in the vulnerability for suicidality: first, the intronic polymorphisms (A218C or A779C) of the tryptophan hydroxylase 1 (TPH1) gene, which was suggested as a quantitative risk factor for suicidal behaviour; second, the insertion/deletion polymorphism of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR), which does not seem to be involved in general suicidal behaviour, but in violent and repeated suicide attempts. The data have further shown that the MAOA gene, which is consistently associated with impulsive-aggressive personality traits, is not related to suicide but might induce violent methods in subjects with other suicide risk factors. Predominantly negative were the findings with any type of the serotonin receptors and inconsistent with catecholamine-synthesizing and -metabolizing enzymes or with the dopaminergic receptors. This paper reviews the status of current knowledge in this area, points to the weakness of the investigations and presents new approaches beyond the serotonergic system.

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confidence: 63%

Genetics of suicide

2006

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“…This faster functionality could result in less extracellular 5HT in L/L subjects, however, not enough to cause depression by itself (present report) [17,20,31,32] . In addition, it could be that this rapidly functioning transporter might be more susceptible to blockers, such as selective 5HT reuptake inhibitors, as reported in clinical studies [14][15][16] .…”

Section: P42 C43 P44 P51 C52mentioning

confidence: 57%

Allelic Isoforms and Decrease in Serotonin Transporter mRNA in Lymphocytes of Patients with Major Depression

Lima

Mata

Urbina

2005

Neuroimmunomodulation

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Serotonin transporter, measured by the specific binding of [³H]paroxetine, has been reported to be reduced in circulating lymphocytes of patients with major depression. Due to this observation, the objective of the present report was to determine the levels of serotonin transporter mRNA in lymphocytes obtained from 29 major depression patients (4 men, age 33.10 ± 1.63 years) and from 30 subjects included as a control group (4 men, age 37.54 ± 2.18 years) using RT-PCR. The patients were diagnosed according to the criteria of the American Psychiatric Association, and had a severity of depression of 32.68 ± 1.55 determined by the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression. The DNA was submitted to polymerase chain reaction with primers for the 5′ regulatory region of human serotonin transporter, which could show the long and the short allelic forms of the transporter gene for the 5HTTLPR polymorphism. Semiquantitative analysis was performed using β-actin as internal and external standard. Control subjects presented the two allelic forms in 9.09% and depressed patients in 8.69%. The long variant was present in 73% of controls and in 60% of patients, without significant differences. There was a significant reduction in mRNA in depressed patients expressing the long allele. The number of immunofluorescent lymphocytes, labeled with a specific antibody against serotonin transporter, was reduced in the patients, as well as CD3+ lymphocytes. Serotonin and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid in platelet-poor plasma or lymphocytes did not differ between depressed patients and controls. The reduction in lymphocyte serotonin transporter described in major depression might be due to a decrease in the level of its mRNA and in the number of cells expressing it. These observations might implicate that functional modifications are associated with nervous-immune interactions in depression.

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“…In total, 17 population-based studies 9,14,33,34,38,46,50,51,56,60,61,66,[68][69][70] and six family-based studies 12,32,42,53,63,74 were about 5-HTTLPR. A total of 16 population-based studies 27,33,35,38,41,47,[49][50][51]54,56,58,60,61,70,75 and four family-based studies 12,52,57,63 were about the intron 2 VNTR. Among the population-based studies, some used matched controls according to the ethnicity 41,47,50,60,66,69 and others explicitly verified the ethnic homogeneity of the sample through the ancestry history.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…51 The remaining studies mentioned that the sample was ethnically homogeneous. 9,14,34,35,49,54,58,61,68,70,75 5-HTTLPR meta-analysis In total, 17 population-based studies comprised 1712 cases (ie 3424 alleles) and 2583 controls, whereas six family-based studies comprised 587 trios. Summaries are shown in the Tables 1 and 2.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population-based and family-based studies on the serotonin transporter gene polymorphisms and bipolar disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis

et al. 2005

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The serotonin transporter (5-HTT) is a candidate gene for bipolar disorder (BPD). It has been investigated for association with the illness in a series of studies, but overall results have been inconsistent and its role in the disorder remains controversial. Systematic reviews using metaanalytical techniques are a useful method for objectively and reproducibly assessing individual studies and generating combined results. We performed two meta-analyses of published studies-both population-based and family-based studies-investigating the association between BPD and the 5-HTT gene-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) and the intron 2 variable numbers of tandem repeats (VNTR) polymorphisms. The literature was searched using Medline and Embase to identify studies for inclusion. We statistically joined population-based and family-based studies into a single meta-analysis. For both polymorphisms, our review revealed significant pooled odds ratios (ORs): 1.12 (95% CI 1.03-1.21) for the 5-HTTLPR and 1.12 (95% CI 1.02-1.22) for the intron 2 VNTR. Meta-regression showed that neither the study type (population-based vs family-based; P ¼ 0.41 for the 5-HTTLPR and P ¼ 0.91 for the intron 2 VNTR) nor the sample ethnicity (Caucasian vs non-Caucasian; P ¼ 0.35 for the 5-HTTLPR and P ¼ 0.66 for the intron 2 VNTR) significantly contributed to the heterogeneity of the meta-analyses. The observed ORs could be regarded simply as a very small but detectable effect of the 5-HTT, which has an additive effect when combined with other susceptibility loci. Alternative hypotheses on this finding were also discussed: a stronger effect of the haplotypes involving the two polymorphisms or other SNP markers; a more direct effect of these polymorphisms on specific phenotypes of BPD; and the presence of gene-environment interaction as a mediator of the genetic effects of 5-HTT. Keywords: bipolar disorder; serotonin transporter; polymorphisms; genetics; association study; meta-analysis Bipolar disorder (BPD), also known as manic-depressive illness, is a frequent and severe psychiatric disorder with the lifetime prevalence between 1 and 2% in the general population, being equally distributed across sexes. 1 The etiology is unknown although the presence of a complex dysfunction at multiple levels such as neurotransmitter system, prefrontallimbic-subcortical circuit and neuroendocrinological system has been suggested. 2 Family studies have indicated a marked increase in lifetime risk of the illness in first-degree relatives of the proband, varying between five and 10 times that of the general population. 3 Twin studies have shown an increased risk in monozygotic co-twins compared with dizygotic co-twins of a proband with BPD. The risk in monozygotic co-twins has been estimated at 45-75 times that of the general population. 3,4 Adoption studies have also shown that the risk of BPD is greater in biological relatives than in adoptive relatives of the probands. 5 Most of the segregation studies have shown that the inheritance of BPD cannot be explained b...

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Association Study of Serotonin Transporter Gene VNTR Polymorphism and Mood Disorders, Onset Age and Suicide Attempts in a Chinese Sample

Cited by 26 publications

References 34 publications

Genetics of suicide

Genetics of suicide

Allelic Isoforms and Decrease in Serotonin Transporter mRNA in Lymphocytes of Patients with Major Depression

Population-based and family-based studies on the serotonin transporter gene polymorphisms and bipolar disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis

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