linkage studies require recruitment, of family units of varying size, and are not, practically feasible in the context, of pharmacogenetics. Family-based association studies require smaller family units, but they too are not practical for pharmacogenetics, except, for studies conducted in pediatric populations. Case-control association studies are the most suitable strategy for pharmacogenetics. Their advantages

are considerable, the most, striking being the possibility of recruiting Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical large samples that have sufficient, statistical power to investigate genetic variants of relatively small effect. Large samples are particularly important if the effect of more than one gene is being Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical studied in the same sample, and interactions among genes and between genes and the environment, are being sought. On the other hand, case -control designs are notoriously susceptible to the effects of ethnic stratification, which can lead to spurious results. These are due to a BIBR 1532 supplier particular allele being enriched in a particular population. If this population is overrepresented in the case or control group, a spurious finding will result, in which the allele is erroneously associated with the phenotype. The nature of the problem is illustrated in Figure 1,6 which shows the frequency of the gly allele Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of the dopamine D3 receptor gene (DRD3) scr9gly polymorphism

in samples from several populations. These samples were included in a pooled and meta-analytic study of the DRD3 ser9gly polymorphism as a risk factor for TD.6 Great variability in the frequency of the 9gly allele in the different samples included in the study Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical is immediately evident, ranging from 30% to 40% among Caucasians from different countries, and reaching 80% among African-Americans. Figure 1. Frequency of the gly allele of the dopamine D3 receptor (DRD3) ser9gly polymorphism in eight samples of different ethnic origin, vhich were included

in a pooled Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical meta-analysis in which association of the DRD3 ser9gly polymorphism with susceptibility to … If the association of the DRD3 gly 9 allele with TD Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase were tested without controlling for ethnicity in this pooled sample, made up of 317 patients with TD and 463 patients without TD, spurious results could easily arise. Therefore, a stepwise logistic regression was employed so as to allow the confounding effects of ethnicity and also age and gender to be taken into account. TD was significantly associated with DRD3 gly9 allele carrier status (X2=4.46, df=1, P=0.04) over and above the effect, of ethnicity. Similar positive effects were observed when controlling for age and gender (X2=5.02, df=1, P=0.02).6-9 A meta-analysis was performed, which included all the samples in the pooled analysis, as well as data from additional published studies.