Association between BDNF val66 met genotype and episodic memory

✍ Scribed by Emma Dempster; Timothea Toulopoulou; Colm McDonald; Elvira Bramon; Muriel Walshe; Francesca Filbey; Harvey Wickham; Pak C. Sham; Robin M. Murray; David A. Collier

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 75 KB
• Volume: 134B
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1552-4841
• DOI: 10.1002/ajmg.b.30150

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The val^66^ met polymorphism of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been associated with variability in episodic memory [Egan et al., 2003]. In an attempt to replicate this finding, we genotyped 206 individuals (92 affected with schizophrenia or a related disorder and 114 unaffected relatives) from the Maudsley Family Study for the BDNF val^66^ met polymorphism. We analyzed the effect of this polymorphism on episodic memory using the Wechsler Memory Scale, revised version (WMS‐R) by regression analysis between the WMS delayed score of logical memory and genotype (corrected for age, sex, and IQ). We found the met^66^ allele conferred a lower score on the WMS delayed measure (R^2^ = 0.014 P = 0.09), which was not significant. When cases and unaffected relatives were analyzed separately, met^66^ was associated with a lower score on the WMS delayed measure in the relatives only (R^2^ = 0.077 P = 0.01), which is consistent with previous findings. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.