Case-control association study of Disrupted-in-Schizophrenia-1 (DISC1) gene and schizophrenia in the Chinese population

Disrupted-in-Schizophrenia-1 (DISC1) has first been identified as a candidate gene for schizophrenia through study of a Scottish family with a balanced (1; 11) (q42.1; q14.3) translocation. Lots of linkage and association studies supported DISC] as a risk factor for schizophrenia. In this study, we genotyped three SNPs in DISC] using a set of Han Chinese samples of 560 schizophrenics and 576 controls. No positive association was detected in the whole samples but analysis of allele frequencies in female samples showed weak association between SNP rs2295959 and the disease (chi(2) = 6.188, P = 0.0135, OR = 0.728, 95% Cl = 0.567-0.935). Our results provide further evidence for sex difference for the effect of the gene on the aetiology of schizophrenia. Our findings also would encourage further studies, particularly family-based association studies with larger samples, to analyze the association between DISCI and schizophrenia. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.