Background: The neural cell adhesion molecule 1(NCAM1, aliases NCAM and CD56) is a cell-surface molecule which makes homophilic adhesion between neural cells involved in cell migration, axon outgrowth and synaptic plasticity. Recent studies reported that NCAM1 might act as a candidate schizophrenia susceptibility gene.
Method: We genotyped five SNPs (rs1943620, rs1836796, rs1821693, rs686050, rs584427) within the NCAM1 gene and conducted a case-control study in 288 schizophrenic patients and 288 healthy subjects in the Chinese Han population. We compared allele and genotype frequencies and haplotype distributions between cases and controls.
Result: No significant differences in allele and genotype frequencies were found for each single SNP between schizophrenic patients and healthy subjects. Moreover, there were no significant differences in haplotype distributions between cases and controls (global chi2=1.318, P=0.725, df=3).
Conclusion: Our study suggests that the five SNPs within NCAM1 gene we studied may not play a major role in the schizophrenia susceptibility in the Chinese Han population.