Polymorphisms of Transferrin gene are associated with schizophrenia in Chinese Han population

Several recent studies have provided evidence that abnormalities ill oligodeildrocyte and myelin function may contribute to the etiopathology of schizophrenia. Transferrin (TF), all iron transport glycoprotein playing all important role in synthesis of myclin and the development of oligodendrocytes, has been identified its down-regulated expression ill schizophrenia brain by microarray, quantitative PCR and ill situ hybridization method. Ill order to further assess the role of TF in schizophrenia, we examined seven polymorphisms in TF region using a set sample of Chinese Hart subjects consisting of 326 schizophrenia patients and 344 healthy controls. Four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) namely, rs4481157, rs3811655, rs6762415 and rsl405022 were analyzed ill this Study. Our results showed that one intronic SNP had strong association with schizophrenia (rs3811655: allele C > G P = 1.34E-6, OR = 1.89, 95%, Cl = 1.46-2.46; genotype P = 3.72E-6). Two haplotypes A-C and G-G constructed of rs4481157-rs3811655 also revealed significant associations with schizophrenia (global P = 0.0001). Our findings support that TF gene may be involved ill susceptibility to schizophrenia in the Chinese Hall population. However, further studies are needed to confirm these findings ill other populations and to identify functional variants ill TF that may be implicated ill pathogenesis. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.