Polymorphisms of heat shock protein 70 gene (HSPA1A, HSPA1B and HSPA1L) and schizophrenia

The heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) is believed to be involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia with regards to neurodevelopment. An aberration in the HSP70 has been proposed in schizophrenia patients, suggesting that it is a candidate gene for schizophrenia. This study aimed to investigate the association between the three polymorphisms of HSP70-1 (HSPA1A), HSP70-hom (HSPA1L) and HSP70-2 (HSPA1B) and schizophrenia. One hundred and sixty-one patients with schizophrenia and 165 controls were enrolled in the study. A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with a restriction fragment length enzyme (RFLP) was used to genotype the HSPA1A, HSPA1L and HSPA1B polymorphisms. There were no significant differences in the allelic or genotype frequencies of the HSPA1A and HSPA1L polymorphisms between the schizophrenia patients and the controls, while there was a marginal difference in the genotype frequency of the HSPA1B polymorphisms, and a significant difference in the allelic frequency of the HSPA1B polymorphisms between the schizophrenia patients and the controls. There was no evidence of an association between the clinical variables and schizophrenia across the genotypes among the three HSP70 gene polymorphisms. These results suggest that a HSPA1B polymorphism might be related to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia at least in the Korean population. Therefore, larger studies from different ethnic groups should be performed to confirm these results.