Promoter and functional polymorphisms of HTR2C and suicide victims

In Europe, the countries with the highest suicide rates form a so-called J-curve, which starts in Finland and extends down to Slovenia—a country with one of the world's highest suicide rates. So far, the strongest association between suicide and genes has been shown for the serotonergic system. A functional polymorphism 68G>C (Cys23Ser) and a promoter polymorphism–995G>A of serotonin receptor 2C (HTR2C) have already been investigated, but no associations with suicide were determined. In the present study 334 suicide victims and 211 controls of Slovenian origin were genotyped for the above-mentioned polymorphisms using standard methods. In the case of the polymorphism–995G>A no association with suicide was found. However, a significant association was observed between female suicide victims and polymorphism 68G>C. The significance remained when we combined alleles of female and male populations. An excess of GG genotype and allele G was observed. However, no statistically important differences were present when only males were analyzed. Haplotype analysis on female population showed marginal association of haplotype G-C with suicide. The present study speaks for the plausible implication of the HTR2C in suicide susceptibility.