Associations of histone deacetylase-2 and histone deacetylase-3 genes with schizophrenia in a Chinese population

Introduction To explore the association between histone deacetylase-2 (HDAC2) and histone deacetylase-3 (HDAC3) gene polymorphisms and schizophrenia. Methods A total of 208 family trios consisting of fathers, mothers and affected offspring with schizophrenia were recruited as our subjects. Four tag SNPs on HDAC2 (rs10499080, rs6568819, rs2499618 and rs13204445) and two tag SNPs on HDAC3 (rs11741808, rs2530223) genes were selected. The Mass ARRAY Assay Design software (Sequenom) was used to design amplification and allele specific extension primers. The Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) for genotypic distributions was tested using the chi-square goodness-of-fit test. Allelic association for a single tag SNP was analyzed by using family-based association tests including the haplotype-based haplotype relative risk (HHRR) test and the transmission disequilibrium test (TDT). Results The genotypic distributions of HDAC2 SNPs rs6568819, rs2499618 and rs13204445 and HDAC3 SNPs rs11741808 and rs2530223 were all in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (0.05). HHRR analysis revealed no associations between the SNPs and schizophrenia (0.05). In addition, the TDT did not show any significant associations between HDAC2 and HDAC3 SNPs and schizophrenia (0.05). Discussion HDAC2 and HDAC3 might not be associated with schizophrenia in the Chinese population.