Association between a TCF4 Polymorphism and Susceptibility to Schizophrenia

The basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor 4 (TCF4) had been identified as a susceptibility gene associated with schizophrenia (SCZ) by GWAS, but inconsistent results have been found in other studies. To validate these findings and to reveal the effects of different inheritance models, rs2958182, rs1261085, rs8766, and rs12966547 of the TCF4 gene were genotyped in the Northwest Han Chinese population (448 cases and 628 controls) via a multiplex polymerase chain reaction SNPscan assay. Single SNP, genotype, and association analyses with three different models were performed. We observed genotype and allele distributions of four SNPs that showed nonsignificant associations in the Northwest Han Chinese population. However, published datasets (51,892 cases and 68,498 controls) were collected and combined with our experimental results to ascertain the association of the TCF4 gene SNPs and SCZ, which demonstrated that rs2958182 (P=0.003) was a significant signal based on a systematic meta-analysis. To clarify the biological role of rs2958182, it is important to improve the understanding of the pathophysiology of SCZ.