QUANTITATIVE-ANALYSIS OF LEUKOCYTE MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA DELETION IN AFFECTIVE-DISORDERS

Mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are implicated in the pathophys iology of affective disorders, To determine whether the 4977-base-pair deletion in mtDNA is more frequent in affective disorders, we quantit ated the concentration of this deletion in leukocyte mtDNA in 34 proba nds with affective disorders (20 bipolar and 14 unipolar) and 20 contr ols, We found no significant difference in the quantitative ratio of d eletion to wild-type mtDNA between patients and controls, One patient with unipolar depression and I of 2 patients previously reported as ha ving a large quantity of the deleted mtDNA did have a markedly high ra tio; however, the deletion did not segregate with the disease in these two families. These results do not support a hypothesis that the 4977 -base-pair deletion plays an, important role in the pathophysiology of affective disorders. (C) 1997 Society of Biological Psychiatry.