Sex-specific effects of COMT Val158Met polymorphism on corpus callosum structure: A whole-brain diffusion-weighted imaging study
Brain Behav. 2017-08-09; 7(9): e00786
DOI: 10.1002/brb3.786
Read on PubMed
1. Brain Behav. 2017 Aug 9;7(9):e00786. doi: 10.1002/brb3.786. eCollection 2017 Sep.
Sex-specific effects of COMT Val158Met polymorphism on corpus callosum structure:
A whole-brain diffusion-weighted imaging study.
El-Hage W(1)(2)(3), Cléry H(1), Andersson F(1), Filipiak I(1), Thiebaut de
Schotten M(4)(5), Gohier B(6), Surguladze S(7)(8).
Author information:
(1)Université François-Rabelais de ToursInserm UMR U930 ‘Imagerie et Cerveau’
Tours France.
(2)Clinique Psychiatrique Universitaire CHRU de Tours Tours France.
(3)Inserm 1415 Centre d’Investigation Clinique CHRU de Tours Tours France.
(4)Inserm U1127 UPMC-Paris6 UMR-S 975 CNRS UMR 7225 Brain and Spine Institute
Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpetrière Paris France.
(5)Brain Connectivity and Behaviour Group Frontlab, Brain and Spine Institute
Paris France.
(6)Department of Psychiatry CHU d’Angers Angers France.
(7)Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience King’s College London
London UK.
(8)Social & Affective Neuroscience Laboratory Ilia State University Tbilisi
Georgia.
BACKGROUND: Genetic polymorphisms play a significant role in determining brain
morphology, including white matter structure and may thus influence the
development of brain functions. The main objective of this study was to examine
the effect of Val158Met (rs4680) polymorphism of Catechol-O-Methyltransferase
(COMT) gene on white matter connectivity in healthy adults.
METHODS: We used a whole-brain diffusion-weighted imaging method with Tract-Based
Spatial Statistics (TBSS) analysis to examine white matter structural integrity
in intrinsic brain networks on a sample of healthy subjects (N = 82).
RESULTS: Results revealed a sex-specific effect of COMT on corpus callosum (CC):
in males only, Val homozygotes had significantly higher fractional anisotropy
(FA) compared to Met-carriers. Volume-of-interest analysis showed a genotype by
sex interaction on FA in genu and rostral midbody of CC, whereby Val males
demonstrated higher FA than Met females.
CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate the key effect of genes by sex
interaction, rather than their individual contribution, on the corpus callosum
anatomy.
DOI: 10.1002/brb3.786
PMCID: PMC5607550
PMID: 28948081 [Indexed for MEDLINE]