Plasma BDNF concentration, Val66Met genetic variant and depression‐related personality traits

Abstract

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) regulates synaptic plasticity and neurogenesis, and BDNF plasma and serum levels have been associated with depression, Alzheimer's disease, and other psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. In a relatively large community sample, drawn from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA), we examine whether BDNF plasma concentration is associated with the Val66Met functional polymorphism of the BDNF gene (n = 335) and with depression-related personality traits assessed with the NEO-PI-R (n = 391). Plasma concentration of BDNF was not associated with the Val66Met variant in either men or women. However, in men, but not in women, BDNF plasma level was associated with personality traits linked to depression. Contrary to the notion that low BDNF is associated with negative outcomes, we found lower plasma levels in men who score lower on depression and vulnerability to stress (two facets of Neuroticism) and higher on Conscientiousness and Extraversion. These findings challenge the prevailing hypothesis that lower peripheral levels of BDNF are a marker of depression.

The Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor and Personality

“…Of importance, for serum BDNF levels no diurnal variation could be observed for both sexes. These findings might explain the contradictory results (BDNF correlates positively with neuroticism) reported by Terracciano et al [67] in relation to plasma BDNF, although Yasui-Furukori et al [64] recently reported the often observed inverse association between the more unreliable plasma BDNF and harm avoidance in their Japanese sample. Besides this, numbers from Terracciano et al [63] show that plasma and serum BDNF levels only have moderate correlations ( = 0.21, < 0.001).…”

“…One earlier study by Terracciano et al [67] even reported a positive association between plasma BDNF levels and two facets of neuroticism. The detailed results of these studies are presented in Table 1.…”

Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Serum Levels and Genotype: Association with Depression during Interferon-α Treatment

“…The Val to Met variant at amino acid 66 (Val66Met) results from a G758A polymorphism (rs6265) in BDNF's 11th exon. The Met allele has been associated with lower serum BDNF (Ozan et al, 2010), though this has not been consistently replicated (Duncan et al, 2009;Terracciano et al, 2010;Zhou et al, 2011). The Met allele has also been associated with increased suicide risk (Kanellopoulos et al, 2011;Pregelj et al, 2011;Sarchiapone et al, 2008), various depression-related traits (Beevers et al, 2009;Gatt et al, 2008;Gatt et al, 2010;Hayden et al, 2010;Jiang et al, 2005;Lau et al, 2010;Montag et al, 2010;Montag et al, 2008;Montag et al, 2009), and occasionally, a depression diagnosis (Aguilera et al, 2009;Borroni et al, 2009;Kim et al, 2008;Lavebratt et al, 2010).…”

Genetic Research on Sleep, Sleep Disturbances and Associated Difficulties

“…Кроме того, половой диморфизм в отношении черт тревожного ряда наблюдался в зависимости от уровня нейротрофического фактора голов-ного мозга (BDNF): уровень белка в плазме крови прямо коррелировал с чертами тревожного ряда (нейротизмом) и обратно коррелировал с добро-совестностью и экстраверсией у мужчин, но не у женщин (Terracciano et al, 2010a).…”

“…Молекулярно-генетические исследова-ния выявили ассоциацию данного полиморфного локуса с чертами тре-вожного ряда (Lang et al, 2005) и «добросовестностью» (Hiio et al, 2011). Однако результаты недавно проведенного метаанализа (N = 15 251) не подтвердили достоверную ассоциацию Val66Met с вариацией в чертах тревожного ряда, хотя свидетельствовали об его ассоциации с «экстравер-сией» (Terracciano et al, 2010a).…”