Association of limbic system-associated membrane protein (LSAMP) to male completed suicide

Anne Must¹ , Gunnar Tasa² , Aavo Lang¹ , Eero Vasar¹ , Sulev Kõks¹ , Eduard Maron³ and Marika Väli⁴

¹Institute of Physiology, Tartu University, Ravila 19, Tartu 50411, Estonia

²Institute of General and Molecular Pathology, Tartu University, Ravila 19, Tartu 50411, Estonia

³Psychiatry Clinic of Tartu University Hospital, Raja 31, Tartu 50417, Estonia

⁴Institute of Pathological Anatomy and Forensic Medicine, Tartu University, Ravila 19, Tartu 50411, Estonia

author email corresponding author email

BMC Medical Genetics 2008, 9:34doi:10.1186/1471-2350-9-34


Published:	23 April 2008

Abstract

Background

Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated volumetric abnormalities in limbic structures of suicide victims. The morphological changes might be caused by some inherited neurodevelopmental defect, such as failure to form proper axonal connections due to genetically determined dysfunction of neurite guidance molecules. Limbic system-associated membrane protein (LSAMP) is a neuronal adhesive molecule, preferentially expressed in developing limbic system neuronal dendrites and somata. Some evidence for the association between LSAMP gene and behavior has come from both animal as well as human studies but further investigation is required. In current study, polymorphic loci in human LSAMP gene were examined in order to reveal any associations between genetic variation in LSAMP and suicidal behaviour.

Methods

DNA was obtained from 288 male suicide victims and 327 healthy male volunteers. Thirty SNPs from LSAMP gene and adjacent region were selected by Tagger algorithm implemented in Haploview 3.32. Genotyping was performed using the SNPlex™ (Applied Biosystems) platform. Data was analyzed by Genemapper 3.7, Haploview 3.32 and SPSS 13.0.

Results

Chi square test revealed four allelic variants (rs2918215, rs2918213, rs9874470 and rs4821129) located in the intronic region of the gene to be associated with suicide, major alleles being overrepresented in suicide group. However, the associations did not survive multiple correction test. Defining the haplotype blocks using confidence interval algorithm implemented in Haploview 3.32, we failed to detect any associated haplotypes.

Conclusion

Despite a considerable amount of investigation on the nature of suicidal behaviour, its aetiology and pathogenesis remain unknown. This study examined the variability in LSAMP gene in relation to completed suicide. Our results indicate that LSAMP might play a role in pathoaetiology of suicidal behaviour but further studies are needed to understand its exact contribution.