Abstract
A possible dysregulation of serotonergic neurotransmission has been implicated in the aetiology of schizophrenic psychoses. In the present study we analysed allelic and genotypic variations of a recently described functional polymorphic region in the promoter of the human serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) and a variable tandem repeat (VNTR) in intron 2 of the 5-HTT gene. We investigated 413 unrelated individuals, 180 schizophrenic patients and 233 blood donors as controls. With regard to the 5-HTTLPR, both the schizophrenic and the control group did not significantly differ between genotype frequencies (χ2, p = 0.920) and allele frequencies (χ2, p = 0.836). The odds ratio for subjects with schizophrenia who were homozygous for the short allele was 1.04 (95% CI 0.59–1.84). No evidence of allelic association to specific schizophrenia subtypes was found. The 5-HTT associated VNTR also showed no significant differences between either the allelic or the genotypic distributions. Haplotype analysis revealed a significant overall linkage disequilibrium at a level of p = 0.00004. Our findings indicate that both polymorphisms are unlikely to play a substantial role in the genetic predisposition to schizophrenic disorders.
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Received: 14 April 1997 / Accepted: 16 October 1997
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Stöber, G., Jatzke, S., Heils, A. et al. Susceptibility for schizophrenia is not influenced by a functional insertion/deletion variant in the promoter of the serotonin transporter gene. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences 248, 82–86 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/s004060050022
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s004060050022