Am J Psychiatry 1996; 153:271-274
Copyright © 1996 by American Psychiatric Association
Further tests for linkage of bipolar affective disorder to the tyrosine hydroxylase gene locus on chromosome 11p15 in a new series of multiplex British affective disorder pedigrees [published erratum appears in Am J Psychiatry 1997 Jan;154(1):139]
C Smyth, G Kalsi, J Brynjolfsson, J O'Neill, D Curtis, L Rifkin, E Moloney, P Murphy, R Sherrington, H Petursson and H Gurling
Department of Psychiatry, University College London Medical School, UK.
OBJECTIVE: This study was undertaken to confirm or refute previous reports
that link bipolar affective disorder to polymorphic DNA markers at or near
the gene for tyrosine hydroxylase. METHOD: A previous linkage analysis,
which used a tetranucleotide repeat polymorphism at the tyrosine
hydroxylase locus, of six Icelandic families was extended to include a new
series of 17 multiply affected British families. RESULTS: Overall lod
scores under the assumption of locus heterogeneity were between 1.20 and
1.40 at zero recombination with tyrosine hydroxylase, and these scores
persisted across three affective disorder models. CONCLUSIONS: These
results provide some support for linking affective disorder to this genetic
region and suggest that additional linkage and association studies should
be conducted to determine whether tyrosine hydroxylase or a nearby locus
contributes to susceptibility to bipolar affective disorder in some
families.
