한국 남성 알코올의존 환자에서의 COMT 유전자 다형성

Association Study of Catechol-O-Methyltransferase Gene Polymorphism in Korean Male Alcoholics

Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) is an enzyme which play a crucial role in the metabolism of dopamine. It has been suggested that COMT provide molecular role in development of alcohol dependence because of its genetic polymorphism associated with 3-4 fold variation in enzymatic activity. We carried out an association study to verify the relationship between COMT gene polymorphism and alcohol dependence with violent behavior in Korean population. Ninety seven (97) male alcoholics and 94 male normal controls who did not have history of psychiatric illness were enrolled in this study. After amplifying COMT genes by polymerase chain reaction and assessed genotype and allele by Restriction Frag-ment Length Polymorphism (RFLP). Distribution of COMT genotype and allele frequencies between patients and controls was not significantly different. However, the differences between violent group and nonviolent group were significant in frequencies of COMT genotype (χ 2 =7.977, df=2, p=0.019) and allele (χ 2 = 6.832, df=1, p=0.012). Additionally, the differences between nonviolent groups and controls were significant in frequencies of COMT allele (χ 2 =4.481, df=1, p=0.040). This result suggest that COMT gene polymorphism is not associated with the development of alcohol dependence, but may affect a susceptibility to clinical heterogeneity of alcohol dependence, at least in the Korean population.