Associations between the angiotensin-converting enzyme insertion/deletion polymorphism and monoamine metabolite concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid

• Published in: Psychiatry research 2010, Vol.179 (2), p.231-234
• Main Authors: Annerbrink, Kristina, Jönsson, Erik G, Olsson, Marie, Nilsson, Staffan, Sedvall, Göran C, Anckarsäter, Henrik, Eriksson, Elias
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 5-HIAA; ACE I/D; Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Angiotensin; Biological and medical sciences; Clinical Medicine; Criminals; Dopamine; Genome-Wide Association Study; Homovanillic Acid - cerebrospinal fluid; Humans; HVA; Hydroxyindoleacetic Acid - cerebrospinal fluid; Klinisk medicin; Male; MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES; Medical sciences; MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP; Methoxyhydroxyphenylglycol - cerebrospinal fluid; Mutagenesis, Insertional - genetics; Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A - genetics; Polymorphism, Genetic - genetics; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psykiatri; Serotonin; Social behavior disorders. Criminal behavior. Delinquency; Statistics as Topic; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0165-1781; 1872-7123; 1872-7123
• DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2009.04.018

Abstract Angiotensin II has been suggested to influence central dopamine and serotonin turnover. Since the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) plays a key role in angiotensin regulation by converting inactive angiotensin I to active angiotensin II, we hypothesised that the functional insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism in the ACE gene, which has previously been suggested to be associated with, depression and panic disorder, may influence monoamine activity. A well-established technique for assessing brain monoamine turnover in humans is to measure concentrations of monoamine metabolites in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). We thus investigated possible associations between the ACE I/D polymorphism and CSF monoamine metabolite concentrations in a population of healthy male subjects. After having found such an association between the ACE I/D polymorphism and CSF levels of the dopamine metabolite homovanillic acid and the serotonin metabolite 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid in this sample, I carriers displaying lower levels, we tried to replicate this observation in a population of violent male offenders from which also both CSF and DNA were available. Also in this sample, the same associations were found. Our results suggest that the ACE I/D polymorphism may play a role in the modulation of serotonergic and dopaminergic turnover in men.