Association between schizoprenia and a polymorphism of cytosolic phosholipase A2 gene

Cytosolic phosholipase A2 (cPLA2) is a ubiquitous enzyme that produce arachinoid acid (AA), a second messenger, by cleaving phosholipids. Serum, plasma and platelet cPLA2 activity has been reported to be significantly increased in patients with schizophrenia as compared to controls. A reduction of AA was found in red blood cell membranes of patients with schizophrenia showing predominantly negative symptoms. Peet et al. (1998) have identified a Ban I dimorphic site on the first intron of the cPLA2 gene, and reported that subjects with schizophrenia had a significant excess of the A2/A2 homozygote compared with healthy control. We examined an association between Ban I polymorphism of the cPLA2 gene and Japanese patients with schizophrenia. Distribution of genotypes, A1/A1, A1/A2 and A2/A2 type, in normal controls (N=116) was 18.5%,40.3% and 41.2%, respectively. A2/A2 genotype in Japanese subjects was more than that of Caucasian. Distribution of genotypes in schizophrenia (N=140) was 20.5%,52.8% and 26.7%, respectively. A2/A2 genotype of cPLA2 gene of schizophrenia was significantly less that of controls, however, this finding was inverse to that of Peet et al.