The Polymorphisms of Ser49Gly and Gly389Arg in Beta-1-Adrenergic Receptor Gene in Major Depression.

Introduction: It was reported that the genetic susceptibility of major depressive disorder (MDD) is related with genetic polymorphisms. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible association of the genotype and allele frequencies of Ser49Gly and Arg389Gly polymorphisms in MDD by comparing them with healthy subjects.

Methods: A total of 144 patients with MDD diagnosed according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV) criteria and 105 healthy controls were included in the study. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) was used for genotyping.

Results: Of the 144 participants in the MDD group, 77 (53.5%) had homozygous wild type (AA), 57 (39.6%) had heterozygous type (AG), and 10 (6.9%) had mutant (GG) genotype for Ser49Gly, whereas 75 (52.1%) had homozygous wild type (GG), 59 (41.0%) had heterozygous (GC) type, and 10 (6.9%) had mutant homozygous (CC) genotype for Gly386Arg. There were no significant difference in the allele and genotype frequencies of the beta-1-adrenergic receptor (ADRB1) gene for Ser49Gly and Arg389Gly polymorphisms after comparing with healthy controls (p=0.626; p=0.863 and p=0.625; p=0.914).

Conclusion: The results of our study did not reveal a major effect of the polymorphism of Ser49Gly and Gly389Arg in the ADRB1 gene in MDD. Further studies with larger sample size are required to elucidate the role of other beta-1 adrenergic gene polymorphisms in MDD.