title: Influence of brain-derived neurotrophic-factor and apolipoprotein E genetic variants on hippocampal volume and memory performance in healthy young adults.
abstract: Unravelling the impact of genetic variants on clinical phenotypes is a challenging task. Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) play an important role in cell growth, regeneration, synaptic plasticity, learning and memory processes. The aim of the present study was to examine the impact of BDNF Val66Met- and ApoE-polymorphisms and their interactions on hippocampal morphology and memory functions in healthy young adults. Hippocampal volume and memory performance of 135 healthy individuals, aged 24.6 ± 3.2 years, were assessed, using magnetic resonance imaging and the Inventory for Memory diagnostics. The performance of BDNF-Met66 carriers was significantly lower in working memory (P = 0.03) compared with non carriers, whereas no further differences were observed either in cognitive performance or in hippocampal volumes between the groups. Age, BDNF Val66 Met polymorphism and the interaction factor BDNF genotype x age were significantly associated with the variation of working memory scores (P = 0.01, 0.01, 0.02 respectively). No statistically significant differences were detected in the volumes of hippocampi and in memory phenotypes between individuals carrying the ApoE E4 allele and those without it. The analysis did not reveal an impact of gene-gene interaction between BDNF and ApoE genes on hippocampal volumes or memory performance. BDNF Val66Met polymorphism seems to influence working memory function and modulate the effects of ageing on working memory in healthy young adults.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Richter-Schmidinger
authors.forename: Panagiotis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Alexopoulos
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Horn
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maus
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reichel
authors.forename: Cosima
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rhein
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lewczuk
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sidiropoulos
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kneib
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Perneczky
authors.forename: Arnd
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Doerfler
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kornhuber
mesh_terms: D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000235:genetics*; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D001057:Apolipoproteins E; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor