• J Affect Disord · Jun 2013

    Potential role of membrane-bound COMT gene polymorphisms in female depression vulnerability.

    • Alex Hatzimanolis, Silia Vitoratou, Laura Mandelli, Chrysostomos Vaiopoulos, Finiki A Nearchou, Costas N Stefanis, Alessandro Serretti, and Nicholas C Stefanis.
    • University Mental Health Research Institute, Athens, Greece.
    • J Affect Disord. 2013 Jun 1;148(2-3):316-22.

    BackgroundSeveral polymorphic variants within the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene locus have been associated with a number of diverse psychiatric phenotypes including affective disorders. COMT enzyme participates in metabolic pathways involving brain catecholamines, as well as steroid hormones such as estrogens. Given the suggested mood enhancing role of estrogens and the higher prevalence of depression in women, we set out to investigate the potential impact of functional COMT genetic variants on depression and anxiety symptoms in a homogeneous female community sample.MethodsWe genotyped three common polymorphisms within the COMT gene in a rural female population isolate (n=391) interviewed for the presence of lifetime major depression episodes and generalized anxiety disorder. Furthermore, well validated self-rated questionnaires were administered evaluating state depressive symptoms and neuroticism personality trait. Single-marker and haplotype association analyses were performed.ResultsTwo highly correlated markers located in the membrane-bound (MB) COMT promoter region (rs2020917, rs737865) were significantly associated with both self-rated and clinician-rated depressive symptomatology. We did not detect any robust association with generalized anxiety disorder or neuroticism. Exploratory haplotype analysis examining the two promoter markers in combination with the extensively studied val 158met polymorphism (rs4680) did not provide any further support for the contribution of this variant in depressive mood.LimitationsThe relative small sample size should be considered a limitation of this study.ConclusionsOur results provide promising evidence that MB-COMT specific genetic variation may represent an as yet unrecognized genetic factor that influences predisposition to depression amongst females.Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

Want more great medical articles?

Keep up to date with a free trial of metajournal, personalized for your practice.
1,694,794 articles already indexed!

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.