Association of galanin haplotypes with alcoholism and anxiety in two ethnically distinct populations |
| |
Authors: | Belfer I Hipp H McKnight C Evans C Buzas B Bollettino A Albaugh B Virkkunen M Yuan Q Max M B Goldman D Enoch M A |
| |
Institution: | Pain and Neurosensory Mechanisms Branch, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. ibelfer@mail.nih.gov |
| |
Abstract: | The neuropeptide galanin (GAL) is widely expressed in the central nervous system. Animal studies have implicated GAL in alcohol abuse and anxiety: chronic ethanol intake increases hypothalamic GAL mRNA; high levels of stress increase GAL release in the central amygdala. The coding sequence of the galanin gene, GAL, is highly conserved and a functional polymorphism has not yet been found. The aim of our study was, for the first time, to identify GAL haplotypes and investigate associations with alcoholism and anxiety. Seven single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) spanning GAL were genotyped in 65 controls from five populations: US and Finnish Caucasians, African Americans, Plains and Southwestern Indians. A single haplotype block with little evidence of historical recombination was observed for each population. Four tag SNPs were then genotyped in DSM-III-R lifetime alcoholics and nonalcoholics from two population isolates: 514 Finnish Caucasian men and 331 Plains Indian men and women. Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire harm avoidance (HA) scores, a dimensional measure of anxiety, were obtained. There was a haplotype association with alcoholism in both the Finnish (P=0.001) and Plains Indian (P=0.004) men. The SNPs were also significantly associated. Alcoholics were divided into high and low HA groups (>or= and
|
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 PubMed 等数据库收录! |
|