Erythrocyte catechol-O-methyltransferase activity: genetic analysis in nuclear families with one child affected by Down syndrome.

Erythrocyte catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) activity was measured in 142 members of 32 nuclear families in which one child had Down syndrome (DS). The mean activity in subjects with trisomy 21 appears higher than in parents and sibs, though not significantly so. However, this fact does not seem to modify the properties expected for a trait genetically controlled in a diploid population. The commingling analysis of the COMT activity in the whole group, and in each subgroup of relatives, suggests a mixture of two or, more likely, three components, the latter being in agreement with a transmission model of genes without dominance. The most parsimonious hypothesis supported by the mixed model segregation analysis is that of an additive major locus (d = 0.5) with an estimated frequency of 0.40 +/- 0.03 for the COMTH gene, to which a small polygenic effect (H = 0.067) can be added. This hypothesis is supported further by the analysis of family resemblance, r = 0.45 +/- 0.12 being the maximum likelihood estimator of the intraclass correlation among sibs. The higher COMT activity in DS subjects may reflect a situation of general enzyme disorder only indirectly connected with trisomy of chromosome 21.