LAMB1 polymorphism is associated with autism symptom severity in Korean autism spectrum disorder patients.

Background: LAMB1 encodes laminin beta-1, which is expressed during early development of the human nervous system, and could be involved in the pathogenesis of neurodevelopmental disorders.

Aims: In our study, we aimed to investigate whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in LAMB1 were associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and with related clinical severities of ASD.

Methods: Two coding SNPs (rs20556 and rs25659) and two intronic SNPs (rs2158836 and rs2237659) were compared between 180 patients with ASD and 147 healthy control subjects using direct sequencing. The Korean version of the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (K-CARS) was used to assess clinical severities. Multiple logistic regression models were employed to analyze genetic data, and associations with symptom severity were tested with the Kruskal-Wallis and the Mann-Whitney U tests.

Results: None of the four examined SNPs was associated with ASD risk. However, the GG genotype of rs2158836 was associated with more severe symptoms for the "object use" and "non-verbal communication" measures.

Conclusions: The results of our study suggest the association between rs2158836 polymorphisms and symptom severity in ASD.