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No association of COMT (Val158Met) genotype with brain structure differences between men and women

Barnes, A; Isohanni, M; Barnett, JH; Pietiläinen, O; Veijola, J; Miettunen, J; Paunio, T; ... Jones, PB; + view all (2012) No association of COMT (Val158Met) genotype with brain structure differences between men and women. PLoS One , 7 (3) , Article e33964. 10.1371/journal.pone.0033964. Green open access

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Abstract

We examined the effect of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met polymorphism (rs4680), on brain structure in a subset (N = 82) of general population members of the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort, selected through a randomization procedure, aged 33-35. Optimised voxel-based morphometry was used to produce grey matter maps from each subject's high resolution T1 weighted brain magnetic resonance images, which were subsequently entered into a general linear model with COMT genotype as defined by Met allele loading, gender and genotype by gender interaction as independent variables. Additional analyses were carried out on grey matter volumes within the dorsal lateral pre-frontal cortex (DLPFC) to examine effects on overall DLPFC volume and also using the DLPFC as a mask for voxelwise analyses, as this is an area previously reported as associated with Met allele loading. We failed to find any statistically significant association with grey matter volume and Met allele loading in the COMT gene or interaction affects between COMT and gender in either the whole brain voxel-wise analysis or in the area of the DLPFC.

Type: Article
Title: No association of COMT (Val158Met) genotype with brain structure differences between men and women
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0033964
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0033964
Language: English
Additional information: © 2012 Barnes et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. PMCID: PMC3316513
Keywords: Adult, Amino Acid Substitution, Brain, Catechol O-Methyltransferase, Female, Genotype, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Neuroimaging, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prefrontal Cortex, Sex Factors
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 Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Medicine
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1420413
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