Department of Psychiatry, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, Catholic University of Korea, College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Neuropsychobiology. 2013;67(1):6-13. doi: 10.1159/000342384. Epub 2012 Dec 4.
Although the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met polymorphism is thought to play an important role in the pathophysiology of anxiety, studies on the association between the BDNF polymorphism and anxiety have reported inconsistent results. As possible confounders in determining anxiety, childhood maltreatment and gender as well as their interactions with BDNF polymorphism have been suggested. This study examined the effect of BDNF genotype, childhood maltreatment, and their interaction on anxiety levels by gender.
A total of 206 unrelated Korean healthy young adults (108 were male and the mean age was 23.1 ± 3.2 years) were genotyped for the BDNFVal66Met polymorphism. Measures for anxiety and childhood maltreatment were completed. The main and interaction effects of BDNF polymorphism and childhood maltreatment on anxiety were analyzed by general linear models in all subjects and then in gender-stratified groups.
Gender-specific analyses revealed that the interaction effect was significant only in males (p = 0.014). Interestingly, male subjects with the Val/Met genotype tended to be resilient against the increased anxiety after childhood maltreatment. In females, the main effects of both BDNF genotype and childhood maltreatment were significant (p = 0.024 and p = 0.009, respectively) and post-hoc analysis revealed that the Val/Val genotype was associated with a higher anxiety than the Met/Met genotype (p = 0.004).
Our results support the interaction effect between the BDNFVal66Met polymorphism and childhood maltreatment in determining anxiety and further emphasize the possible moderating role of gender in this gene-environment interaction.
尽管脑源性神经营养因子（BDNF）Val66Met 多态性被认为在焦虑的病理生理学中起着重要作用，但关于 BDNF 多态性与焦虑之间的关联的研究结果并不一致。作为确定焦虑的可能混杂因素，儿童期虐待和性别以及它们与 BDNF 多态性的相互作用已被提出。本研究通过性别检查了 BDNF 基因型、儿童期虐待及其与焦虑水平相互作用的影响。
总共对 206 名无关的韩国健康年轻成年人（108 名男性，平均年龄为 23.1 ± 3.2 岁）进行了 BDNFVal66Met 多态性基因分型。完成了焦虑和儿童期虐待的测量。在所有受试者和性别分层组中，通过一般线性模型分析 BDNF 多态性和儿童期虐待对焦虑的主要和相互作用效应。
性别特异性分析显示，仅在男性中交互作用具有显著性（p = 0.014）。有趣的是，具有 Val/Met 基因型的男性在儿童期虐待后出现焦虑增加时，具有更强的适应能力。在女性中，BDNF 基因型和儿童期虐待的主要效应均具有显著性（p = 0.024 和 p = 0.009，分别），并且事后分析表明，Val/Val 基因型与更高的焦虑相关比 Met/Met 基因型（p = 0.004）。
我们的结果支持 BDNFVal66Met 多态性与儿童期虐待在确定焦虑中的相互作用效应，并进一步强调了性别在这种基因-环境相互作用中的可能调节作用。
