J Korean Neuropsychiatr Assoc.  2003 Sep;42(5):559-563.

Association Study of Tumor Necrosis Factor-Alpha Gene Polymorphism in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder

• Kim JW
• Jun TY
• Pae CU
• Lee KU

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
The role of cytokines has been one of the focal points of etiologic research in major psychiatric disorders. This study was designed to analyze the polymorphism of TNF-alpha and to investigate its relationship with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
METHODS
241 schizophrenic patients and 89 bipolar patients diagnosed by DSM-IV criteria were included as patient groups and 125 normal poplulation from the Catholic Hemopoietic Stem Cell Information Bank (Seoul, Korea) were used as a control group. DNA was extracted from the whole blood, amplified by polymerase chain reaction, and digested by NcoI. Then the obtained RFLP of two alleles, TNFA*1 with 87 bp and 20 bp, and TNFA*2 with 107 bp were assessed. All data were analyzed by chi2 test.
RESULTS
The genotype and allele distributions in patients with bipolar disorder were significantly different from those in the controls. There were no significant differences in genotype frequencies of TNFA*1/1, TNFA*1/2, and allelic frequencies of TNFA*1 and TNFA*2 between the schizophrenic patients and the controls.
CONCLUSION
In the present study we observed a significant association between the TNFA*2 allele with bipolar disorder, with negative result on the association of the polymorphism of TNF-alpha gene with schizophrenia. Consecutive further studies including diverse clinical variables would be required.

Keyword

Schizophrenia; Bipolar disorder; TNF-alpha gene polymorphism

MeSH Terms

Alleles
Bipolar Disorder*
Cytokines
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
DNA
Genotype
Humans
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
Schizophrenia*
Stem Cells
Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha*
Cytokines
DNA
Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha