Article
Analyzing the Association between ABO Blood Types and Major Depressive Disorder
Search Medline for
Authors
-
Linda Garvert
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
-
Andreas Greinacher
- Institute of Immunology and Transfusion Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
-
Uwe Völker
- Department of Functional Genomics, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
-
Henry Völzke
- Institute for Community Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Germany, Greifswald, Germany
-
Hans Grabe
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
-
Sandra Van der Auwera
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| Published: | February 26, 2021 |
|---|
Outline
Text
Background: ABO blood types and their corresponding antigens have long been assumed to be related to different human diseases. Previous studies have reported associations between ABO blood types and physical conditions such as vascular diseases, cancer, metabolic diseases and cognitive impairment [1]. Some smaller studies also analyzed the relationship between ABO blood types and depression [2], [3], [4]. However, their research yielded contradicting results. Therefore, we want to analyze the association between ABO blood types and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) on a larger dataset to further the understanding of the blood type – depression relationship.
Methods: We performed a pooled analysis with data from 28 cohorts that are part of the MDD working group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. The dataset included 40.280 individuals of which 42.8% were diagnosed with MDD. ABO blood types were identified using the three single nucleotide polymorphisms rs505922, rs8176746 and rs8176747. We performed regression analyses to assess associations between the individual ABO Blood types and the MDD diagnosis. We adjusted for sex, cohort and the first three genetic principal components.
Results: Of all individuals 42.6% had blood type A, 10.1% B, 4.1% AB and 43.2% O. This is in accordance with the expected distribution in a population of mainly European descent. The percentage of blood type A was slightly lower in cases than controls (42.1% vs. 43.1%) while blood type O was more prominent in cases (43.7% vs. 42.7%). However, these differences were not significant and no blood type showed a statistically significant association with MDD.
Conclusion: Our analyses do not show an association between ABO blood types and major depressive disorders. For future analyses it might be helpful to include other factors such as the H antigens, secretor status or Lewis phenotypes.
H.J.G. has received travel grants and speakers honoraria from Fresenius Medical Care, Neuraxpharm and Janssen Cilag. All other authors report no financial relationship with commercial interests.
The authors declare that a positive ethics committee vote has been obtained.
References
- 1.
- Ewald DR, Sumner SC. Blood type biochemistry and human disease. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Syst Biol Med. 2016 Nov;8(6):517-535. DOI: 10.1002/wsbm.1355
- 2.
- Pisk SV, Vuk T, Ivezić E, Jukić I, Bingulac-Popović J, Filip\u269 ?ić I. ABO blood groups and psychiatric disorders: a Croatian study. Blood Transfus. 2019 Jan;17(1):66-71. DOI: 10.2450/2018.0266-17
- 3.
- Singg S, Lewis JL. Depression and blood types. Psychol Rep. 2001 Jun;88(3 Pt 1):725-6. DOI: 10.2466/pr0.2001.88.3.725
- 4.
- Song C, Leng J, Wang L, Li W, Zhang S, Wang W, Liu P, Zhang J, Xie B, Li W, Chan JCN, Yang X. ABO blood types and postpartum depression among Chinese women: A prospective cohort study in Tianjin, China. Women Health. 2018 Jul;58(6):685-698. DOI: 10.1080/03630242.2017.1333077
