Genetic analysis of the (CTG)n NOTCH4 polymorphism in 65... : Psychiatric Genetics (original) (raw)

Research Papers

Genetic analysis of the (CTG)n NOTCH4 polymorphism in 65 multiplex bipolar pedigrees

Swift-Scanlan, T.a; Lan, T.-H.a; Fallin, M.D.b; Coughlin, J.M.a; Potash, J.B.a; DePaulo, J.R.; McInnis, M.G.a

aGeorge Browne Genetics Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

bThe Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Correspondence to M.G. McInnis, MD, MRCPsych, Director, George Browne Genetics Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Meyer 4-141, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287-7463, USA. Tel: +1 410 614 0991; E-mail: [email protected]

Received 7 September 2001 accepted 21 December 2001

Abstract

A strong genetic association between the NOTCH4 locus on chromosome 6 and schizophrenia was recently reported. Based on the data suggesting overlapping susceptibility for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, we genotyped the polymorphic (CTG)n encoding polyleucine repeat in exon 1 of NOTCH4 in 65 pedigrees ascertained for a genetic linkage study of bipolar disorder. In addition, we analyzed a subset of our pedigrees with psychotic features at this locus. We failed to find any association between the (CTG)n NOTCH4 polymorphism and either the bipolar or the psychotic bipolar phenotype in our 65 pedigrees.