Influence of vascular endothelial growth factor variation on human hippocampus morphology.
BACKGROUND
Morphological abnormalities in hippocampus have been implicated in neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression, schizophrenia, and dementia. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has been demonstrated to have neurogenic effects in the hippocampus in rats. However, influence of VEGF variation on hippocampus morphology in humans has yet to be shown. Here, an integrated genetic and neuroimaging approach was used to investigate whether VEGF variation influences hippocampus morphology in humans.


METHODS
High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging and voxel-based morphometry were used to identify the influence of genetic variation of VEGFA [rs833068 (SNP-1), rs833070 (SNP-2), rs2146323 (SNP-3) and rs3025020 (SNP-4)] on brain morphology in 47 healthy individuals.


RESULTS
Variation in VEGFA SNP-2 and SNP-3 showed significant effects on hippocampus concentration.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest that effects of VEGF in hippocampus found in rats extend to humans; further understanding of effects of VEGFA variation might have important implications in identifying individuals more vulnerable to hippocampus pathology as well as those neuropsychiatric populations most likely to benefit from VEGF-mediated interventions.
Blumberg
Hilary P
HP
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut. Electronic address: hilary.blumberg@yale.edu.
Wang
Fei
F
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut.
Chepenik
Lara G
LG
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut.
Kalmar
Jessica H
JH
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut.
Edmiston
Elliot Kale
EK
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut.
Duman
Ronald S
RS
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
Gelernter
Joel
J
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut.
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D015810:Linkage Disequilibrium; D008297:Male; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics*; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000235:genetics*; D055815:Young Adult
D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A