No evidence to support the association of the potassium channel gene hSKCa3 CAG repeat with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder in the Irish population (original) (raw)

Molecular Psychiatry volume 4, pages 488–491 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

Anticipation has attracted much interest and has been demonstrated in several neuropsychiatric disorders. For some disorders, this phenomenon has been found to correlate with the repeat number in large and unstable repeats (CAG/CTG). In addition, case control studies have suggested an increase in triplet repeat size in the psychoses. Recently, it was reported that the larger alleles (longer than 19 repeats) of the second potassium channel gene hSKCa3 are associated with schizophrenia in European and American samples. A similar trend, though not statistically significant, was also seen in bipolar disorder samples. This was further supported by an independent UK study.1 In this investigation, we have examined Irish familial schizophrenic patients, bipolar affective disorder patients and ethnically matched controls in an effort to replicate these findings. No significant differences between the patients and the control groups were observed. In addition, linkage analyses in the multiplex schizophrenic families showed no evidence for linkage or linkage disequilibrium. We concluded that the polymorphism of the second CAG repeat of the hSKCa3 gene is not a risk factor in schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, at least in the Irish population.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 12 print issues and online access

$259.00 per year

only $21.58 per issue

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Additional access options:

Similar content being viewed by others

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Genetics, Trinity College, Dublin, Eire
    Z Hawi, L Mynett-Johnson, V Murphy, P McKeon & M Gill
  2. Department of Psychiatry and Human Genetics, Vriginia Institute for Psychiatry and Behavioural Genetics, Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA
    R E Straub & K S Kendler
  3. Health Research Board, Dublin, Eire
    D Walsh

Authors

  1. Z Hawi
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  2. L Mynett-Johnson
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  3. V Murphy
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  4. R E Straub
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  5. K S Kendler
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  6. D Walsh
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  7. P McKeon
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  8. M Gill
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence toZ Hawi.

Rights and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hawi, Z., Mynett-Johnson, L., Murphy, V. et al. No evidence to support the association of the potassium channel gene hSKCa3 CAG repeat with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder in the Irish population.Mol Psychiatry 4, 488–491 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4000560

Download citation

Keywords