1. ¹Bio-X Life Science Research Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, PR China
2. ²Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, PR China
3. ³NHGG, Bio-X, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, PR China
4. ⁴Shanghai Institute of Mental Health, Shanghai, PR China
5. ⁵Changchun Kaixuan Hospital, Changchun, PR China
6. ⁶Wuhu No.4 People's Hospital, Wuhu, PR China

Correspondence: Dr Lin He, Bio-X Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, HaoRan Building, 1954 HuaShan Road, Shanghai 200030, PR China; or Institute for Nutritional Sciences, SIBS, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 294 Taiyuan Road, Shanghai 200031, PR China. E-mail: helin@sjtu.edu.cn

⁷These authors contributed equally to this work.

Received 25 March 2005; Revised 4 April 2006; Accepted 7 April 2006; Published online 9 May 2006.

Abstract

The MPZL1/PZR gene has been mapped to 1q23.3, located in close proximity to a recognized schizophrenia susceptibility locus. Recently, the MPZL1/PZR gene has been found to be significantly upregulated in schizophrenia brain tissue and to play an important role in cell signaling, thus indicating that MPZL1/PZR could be a potential schizophrenia marker. To test this hypothesis, we selected three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for genotyping in 523 Han Chinese trios. We found that two individual SNPs were significant at the Bonferroni's corrected significance level P<0.017: rs3767444 (²=6.299, P=0.0121) and rs2051656 (²=9.856, P=0.0017). Haplotype transmission/disequilibrium tests revealed a significant association with the disease (global P-value=1.064 10^-6), but no specific transmission distortions. Thus, we propose that the MPZL1/PZR gene may be important in the predisposition to schizophrenia among Han Chinese.