VARIATION OF COMT AND MAO-A GENES IN 2 ARGENTINIAN PROVINCES

GLESMANN LA, MARTINA PF, ARBELETCHE VIDAL RIOJA L, CATANESI CI

Ciudad de Buenos Aires

Jornada; X Jornadas Multidisciplinarias de la Sociedad Argentina de Biología; 2008

Sociedad Argentina de Biología

Individual differences in the response to pain stimuli are caused in part by genetic polymorphisms which affect the pain perception. Cathecolamines are involved in pain modulation, and some of the genes coding for the enzymes that control their metabolism are polymorphic. In Argentine the allelic frequencies of such genetic variants are unknown. Our population has partially an European ancestry, with a considerable Native American component; moreover, the ethnic composition of each Argentinian province can vary, depending on the prevalent immigration. The aim of this work is to characterize the allelic variants of the genes COMT and MAO-A in individuals of the provinces of Buenos Aires (BA) and Misiones (MN), for comparing both populations. DNA obtained from blood or cotton swab (BA=100,  MN=45), was used to analyze a VNTR in MAO-A and a SNP polymorphism in COMT by PCR and electrophoresis. The results fit to Hardy-Weinberg expectations, except for VNTR in MN, due to an excess of heterozygote individuals. COMT-G/C polymorphism showed high prevalence of allele G in both provinces (>60%), while MAO-A VNTR presented as modal, the allele with 4 repetitions (BA=53%, Mnes=45%). Private alleles were found for the VNTR, but differences were not significant between both samples. Although these results will be confirmed in a bigger sample, these polymorphisms did not allow to detect population differences in the genetic composition of the two analyzed provinces.