Several lines of evidence point to the role of serotonin (5HT) neurotransmission in the epileptogenesis. The present preliminary study investigated possible association of the temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with the polymorphisms in several 5HT-related genes, including serotonin transporter (5HTT), monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) and serotonin receptors 5HT-1A, 5HT-1B and 5HT-2C. All participants (101 TLE patients and 170 healthy controls) were unrelated individuals of Croatian origin. 5HT-1B allele 861G was found to be slightly overrepresented in the patient group (p=0.0385). No significant differences between groups were observed for the other tested polymorphisms. Within the limitations imposed by the size of our sample, negative findings suggest that the respective loci do not make considerable contribution to the etiopathogenesis of TLE. Further examination of 5HT-1B gene, which yielded positive result at a trend level, is possibly warranted.
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