Mr. Hoehe et al., SEROTONIN TRANSPORTER (5-HTT) GENE POLYMORPHISMS ARE NOT ASSOCIATED WITH SUSCEPTIBILITY TO MOOD-DISORDERS, American journal of medical genetics, 81(1), 1998, pp. 1-3
In a population-based association study, we tested the hypothesis that
allelic variants of the human serotonin transporter (5-HTT) gene conf
er susceptibility to mood disorders, Both a biallelic repeat polymorph
ism in the 5' promotor region that differentially modulates gene expre
ssion and a second intron variable-number-tandem-repeat (VNTR) marker
were genotyped in 294 controls and 115 patients with mood disorders, S
ubjects were of West European descent and included 36 patients with ma
jor depressive disorder (MDD) and 79 patients with bipolar I disorder
(BD), No significant differences in genotype or allele frequencies mer
e found at either locus between controls and combined patients, nor be
tween controls and MDD or BD patients separately. Thus, our data do no
t support the association between depressive disorder and a nine-repea
t allelic variant of the 5-HTT VNTR marker recently reported by Ogilvi
e et al. (Lancet 347:731-733, 1996), More importantly, no association
between alleles conveying functional differences in 5-HTT gene express
ion and MDD or BD could be found. Taken together, our data suggest tha
t the 5-HTT gene is not commonly involved in the susceptibility to moo
d disorders, (C) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.