Association study of VEGFA polymorphisms with schizophrenia in Han Chinese population

Vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) has been implicated in neurotrophy and neurogenesis, which play a pivotal role in brain development and may be involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia (SCZ). We hypothesized that common genetic variants in the VEGFA gene may be associated with SCZ. In our study, seven tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within VEGFA were genotyped in 1034 SCZ patients and 952 healthy controls in the Han Chinese population. No significant differences of allele and genotype distributions of the 7 tag SNPs were identified between SCZ patients and healthy controls. The AA genotype of rs699947 nominally decreased the risk of SCZ in recessive inheritance model (p=0.03, OR=0.65, 95%CI=0.44-0.95, adjusted p=0.18). No significant associations were found between different haplotypes and the risk of SCZ (p>0.05). Our findings suggested that the selected tag SNPs of VEGFA may not confer a susceptibility of SCZ in the Han Chinese population.