Several lines of evidence suggest that oxidative stress plays a role in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, and that glutathione (GSH) plays a crucial role in antioxidant defense mechanisms. In this study, we performed association studies between GSH-related genes (GSTM1, GSTP1, GSTO1, GSTT1, GSTT2, GPX1, and GCLM) and schizophrenia in a Japanese population. The overall distributions of the genotypes and alleles of each gene were not different between schizophrenic patients and controls. Subjects with residual-type schizophrenia showed different distributions in the analysis of GSTM1 genotype and in the combination analysis of GSTs, GPX1, and GCLM genotypes although the small sample size should be considered as a limitation of this study. In addition, our findings revealed that there were large ethnic differences in the genotype distributions of those GSH-related genes. The present study suggests that GSH-related genes may not play a major role in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia in a Japanese population. However, a dysregulation of GSH metabolism may be one of the vulnerability factors contributing to the development of a certain type of schizophrenia, and it is likely that the ethnic background should be considered in further study for those GSH-related genes.
2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.