Page 328 - merged

S076-1

The Influence of Met Proto-Oncogene/Akt Gene in Facial Emotion Perception

Ming-Teng Lin

Institute of Clinical Medical Science, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, Department of Psychiatry,
Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Hsinchu Branch, Taiwan

Background/Objective: Facial emotion perception is important in social skill. Previous research has
reported that schizophrenia patients have a deficit of facial emotion perception. However, molecular
mechanism of facial emotion perception remains unclear. MET proto-oncogene /AKT cascade was
reported to be involved in neurodevelopment and associated with schizophrenia. This study explores
the possible role of MET proto-oncogene/AKT cascade in facial emotion perception in patients with
schizophrenia.

Method: Two hundred and thirty two patients with chronically stable schizophrenia, 136 men and 96
women, were recruited in this study. Three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of MET
proto-oncogene (rs2237717, rs41735, rs42336) and AKT rs1130233 were genotyped and tested for
their effects on facial emotion perception. Facial emotion perception was assessed by the face task of
the emotion perception branch of MSCEIT.

Result: There were no significant influences of MET proto-oncogene genotypes and haplotypes on
facial emotion perception. In AKT rs1130233, AG performed better facial emotion perception than
GG did (p=0.044 by ANOVA, 0.017 by GLM), and no different with AA (p=0.146 by ANOVA,
0.061 by GLM). In MET/AKT interaction status, C carrier/A carrier group performed better facial
emotion perception than C carrier/GG group did (p=0.034 by ANOVA, 0.009 by GLM).

Conclusion: These data suggested that AKT may had an effect on facial emotion perception and also
modulate MET effect in affect facial emotion perception, and this result possibly implicating that
MET / AKT cascade play an important role in facial emotion perception. This may need further
replication study to confirm.