Rietschel, L;
Streit, F;
Zhu, G;
McAloney, K;
Frank, J;
Couvy-Duchesne, B;
Witt, SH;
... Bybjerg-Grauholm, J; + view all
(2017)
Hair Cortisol in Twins: Heritability and Genetic Overlap with Psychological Variables and Stress-System Genes.
Scientific Reports
, 7
(1)
, Article 15351. 10.1038/s41598-017-11852-3.
Preview |
Text
s41598-017-11852-3.pdf - Published Version Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Hair cortisol concentration (HCC) is a promising measure of long-Term hypothalamus-pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis activity. Previous research has suggested an association between HCC and psychological variables, and initial studies of inter-individual variance in HCC have implicated genetic factors. However, whether HCC and psychological variables share genetic risk factors remains unclear. The aims of the present twin study were to: (i) assess the heritability of HCC; (ii) estimate the phenotypic and genetic correlation between HPA axis activity and the psychological variables perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and neuroticism; using formal genetic twin models and molecular genetic methods, i.e. polygenic risk scores (PRS). HCC was measured in 671 adolescents and young adults. These included 115 monozygotic and 183 dizygotic twin-pairs. For 432 subjects PRS scores for plasma cortisol, major depression, and neuroticism were calculated using data from large genome wide association studies. The twin model revealed a heritability for HCC of 72%. No significant phenotypic or genetic correlation was found between HCC and the three psychological variables of interest. PRS did not explain variance in HCC. The present data suggest that HCC is highly heritable. However, the data do not support a strong biological link between HCC and any of the investigated psychological variables.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Hair Cortisol in Twins: Heritability and Genetic Overlap with Psychological Variables and Stress-System Genes |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-017-11852-3 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-11852-3 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Behavioural genetics, Prognostic markers |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Division of Psychiatry |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10038702 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
