Cytosolic PLA2 genes possibly contribute to the etiology of schizophrenia

The present study detected three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), BanISNP at the PLA2G4A locus, rs1648833 at the PLA2G4B locus, and rs1549637 at the PLA2G4C locus, to investigate a genetic association between the cytosolic PLA2 (cPLA2) genes and schizophrenia. A total of 240 Chinese parent-offspring trios of Han descent were recruited for the genetic analysis. The transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) showed allelic association for rs1549637 (chi(2) = 5.68, uncorrected P = 0.017), but not for BanISNP and rs1648833. The conditioning on genotype (COG) test revealed a disease association for the BanISNP-rs1648833 combination (chi(2) = 12.54, df = 3, P = 0.0057) and for the BanISNP-rs1549637 combination (chi(2) = 9.72, df = 2, P = 0.021), but the conditioning on allele (COA) test did not show such an association for the above two combinations. Neither the COA test nor the COG showed a disease association for the rs1648833-rs1549637 combination. In the combination of all three SNPs, the COG test, but not the COA test, showed a strong association (chi(2) = 22.93, df = 6, P = 0.0008). These findings suggest that these three cPLA2 genes may all be involved in contributing to the etiology of schizophrenia although their effect size appears to be relatively small.