[Insertion-deletion polymorphism of angiotensin-1-converting enzyme gene in patients with endogenic psychoses]

Due to its role in dopamine system functioning in brain, angiotensin-1-converting enzyme (ACE) gene insertion-deletion (I/D) polymorphism is reportedly studied for association with major psychosis. The present study aimed at searching for I/D allele and genotype distribution in patients with major psychosis and healthy subjects and for an association between ACE gene polymorphism and clinical presentations of these disorders. One hundred and ninety-eight patients with schizophrenia (144) and affective disorders (54), 100 male, aged 36.3 +/- 12.8 years, and 247 controls, 87 male, aged 49.6 +/- 13.5 years, have been genotyped. No association was found between ACE gene polymorphism and major psychosis. In the group of males with schizophrenia, genotype distribution differed significantly from that in the male control group (chi2 = 6.24; p = 0.04), with frequencies of the DD genotype and the D allele being higher comparing to the II genotype and the I allele frequency (p = 0.04 and p = 0.01 respectively). It is suggested that in schizophrenia as well as in some other polygenic diseases ACE gene polymorphism might be rather considered as a modifying than a causal factor.