Cholinesterase activities were measured in plasma (ChE) and in intact erythrocytes (AChE) in patients suffering from manic-depressive illness, their first degree relatives who were well, and unrelated normal volunteers.
A genetic linkage has been demonstrated between manic depression and coagulation factor IX at Xq27 with a TaqI polymorphism at the F9 locus in DNA samples from peripheral leucocytes of manic depressive probands and relatives in 10 informative families.
X-linked manic depression and other psychiatric disorders have been mapped to this region, and thus GABRA3 is a potential candidate gene for these disorders.
Six kindreds containing multiple cases of manic-depressive illness were genotyped with highly polymorphic microsatellite polymorphisms for the D5 dopamine and alpha 2C-adrenergic receptor genes.
We have found evidence of an allelic association between bipolar disorder and a marker at the pancreatic phospholipase A2 gene (PLA2A) in this region (p < or = 0.01).
In conclusion, our study does not provide evidence that the 5-HT1A gene plays either a major or a minor role in the genetic predisposition to schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, or Tourette's syndrome.
We report here a linkage between DNA markers near the coagulation factor IX gene and bipolar disorder in an extended pedigree rising from the genetically isolated population of Finland.
As PGP was not fully informative, 12 additional DNA markers were tested in these families to clarify if a gene involved in the etiology of manic depressive illness might be located on chromosome 16p13.