Association of Dopamine D2 Receptor Ser311 -> Cys311 Polymorphism with Korean Schizophrenic Patients

Lee, Bong Hee; Chee, Ik Seung; Shin, Suk Chul

Abstract

A new structural polymorphism(Ser311 -> Cys311) in the dopamine D, receptor gene has been reported to be associated with schizophrenia, particularly in patients with a positive family history of schizophrenia. However these findings remain contorversial. Thus the authors investigated polymorphism of the dopamine D2 receptor gene(Ser311 -> Cys311) in a total of 136 Korean schizophrenic patients and 115 controls. Allele frequencies of Ser311 and Cys311 were determined by polymerase chain reaction(FCR) amplification of specific alleles according to Arinami and colleagues' method. The allele frequency of Cys311 in schizophrenic patients and controls was 0.011 and 0.017, respectively. There were no significant differencies in the allele frequency of Cys311 between schizophrenic patients and controls(x2=0.542, df=1, p>0.05). Neither schizophrenic patients nor controls were homozygous for Cys311. The authors findings contrasted with those of Arinami(1994), but were in line with results of previous studies(Asherson 1994 ; Laurent 1994 ; Nanko 1994b ; Nothen 1994: Sheikh 1994), which did not show evidence of association between schizophrenia and dopamine D2, receptor polymorphism(Ser311 -> Cys311).