Genetic polymorphism of angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE), but not angiotensin II type I receptor (ATr1), has a gender-specific role in panic disorder.

AIMS: Angiotensins were shown to have some role in the development of panic disorder (PD). In this study, we aimed to determine the frequency of polymorphisms in two angiotensin-related genes, angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) and angiotensin II type I receptor (ATr1), in a sample of Turkish patients with PD and to evaluate their association with PD development.

METHODS

Polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism was used to analyze ATr1 A1166C polymorphism, and only polymerase chain reaction was used to analyze functional ACE insertion/deletion polymorphism in 123 patients with PD and in 169 similarly aged disease-free controls.

RESULTS

There was no significant difference in the genotype distribution between PD patients and controls for each polymorphism (P>0.05). Allele frequency of ACE insertion/deletion was borderline statistically significant between the groups (P=0.055; odds ratio: 1.39; 95% confidence interval: 0.99-1.95), and allele frequency of ATr1 A1166C was not significantly different between the groups (P=0.32; odds ratio: 0.81; 95% confidence interval: 0.53-1.22).

CONCLUSION

This study suggests that polymorphisms of ACE I/D and ATr1 A1166C are not associated with risk of PD in Turkish patients. However, in ACE insertion/deletion polymorphism, the insertion allele was found to be more frequent in the male subgroup of patients (χ²=4.61, P=0.032) than in controls, suggesting a potential male-specific role of the less active ACE insertion allele in the pathogenesis of PD.