title: Sex-specific association between nerve growth factor polymorphism and cardiac vagal modulation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Substantial research has shown that anxiety disorders are associated with decreased cardiac vagal tone, which is a known risk factor for cardiac vulnerability. A functional nerve growth factor (NGF) polymorphism (rs6330, c.104C > T, p.Ala35Val) has been associated with anxiety such that in males but not females, T-allele carriers exhibit higher levels of trait anxiety. Here we investigate whether the nonsynonymous NGF variant has an effect on cardiac autonomic control.
  
  
  METHODS
  From 705 adults initially screened for medical and psychiatric illnesses, a final cohort of 580 healthy Han Chinese (352 men, 228 women; mean [standard deviation] age = 34.46 [8.45] years) was included in the NGF genotyping (C/C: 428% [73.8%] and T-allele carriers: 152% [26.2%]). Short-term heart rate variability was used to assess cardiac autonomic function.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were significant genotype-by-sex interaction effects (p < .05) on high-frequency power (HF) and root mean square of successive heartbeat interval differences (RMSSD), both indices of cardiac vagal control. Even after adjusting for possible confounders, men with any T allele showed lower HF and RMSSD compared with men with the C/C genotype. Women, however, showed an opposite but nonsignificant pattern.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The studied NGF polymorphism modulates autonomic outflow to the heart in a sex-dependent manner. The findings support the view that male T-allele carriers are at increased susceptibility for anxiety by association with low vagal activity and suggest a potential sex-specific genetic link between the highly comorbid anxiety disorders and cardiovascular diseases.
authors.affiliation: From the Departments of Psychiatry (C.-C.C., H.-A.C., T.-Y.C., S.-Y.H.) and Family and Community Medicine (W.-H.F.), Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan; and Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (C.-C.C., S.-Y.H.), National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chuan-Chia
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Wen-Hui
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Hsin-An
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Tien-Yu
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: San-Yuan
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006321:Heart / Q000502:physiology*; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020932:Nerve Growth Factor / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D012737:Sex Factors; D014630:Vagus Nerve / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D020932:Nerve Growth Factor