Original scientific paper
Ethnic Differences in Brainderived Neurotrophic Factor Val66Met Polymorphism in Croatian and Korean Healthy Participants
Nela Pivac
orcid.org/0000-0003-3591-4868
; Laboratory for Molecular, Neuropsychiatry, Division of Molecular, Medicine, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia
Byungsu Kim
; Department of Psychiatry, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Gordana Nedić
; Laboratory for Molecular, Neuropsychiatry, Division of Molecular, Medicine, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia
Yeon Ho Joo
; Department of Psychiatry, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Dragica Kozarić-Kovačić
; Department of Psychiatry, Referral Centre for the Stress-related Disorders of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Croatia, University Hospital Dubrava, Zagreb, Croatia
Jin Pyo Hong
; Department of Psychiatry, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Dorotea Muck-Seler
; Laboratory for Molecular, Neuropsychiatry, Division of Molecular, Medicine, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Aim To compare the frequency of alleles and genotypes
in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) val66met polymorphism
in ethnically homogenous Caucasian (from Croatia)
and ethnically homogenous Asian (from South Korea)
healthy participants, as inter-population differences in
BDNF val66met may be responsible for the divergent findings
in genetic and association studies.
Methods BDNF val66met was genotyped in 800 (556 Croatian
and 244 Korean) healthy participants. Frequencies of
alleles and genotypes were evaluated using a χ2 test.
Results The frequencies for genotypes (χ2
2 = 114.69;
P < 0.001) and alleles (χ2
1 = 120.07; P < 0.001) between Korean
and Croatian individuals differed significantly, due to
significantly lower (46.3% and 19.5%, P < 0.001) frequency
of “Met” allele and significantly higher (53.7% and 80.5%,
P < 0.001) frequency of “Val” allele in Croatian than in Korean
participants.
Conclusion The study found significant ethnic differences
in BDNF val66met polymorphism. The most frequent genotype
among Korean participants was “Met/Val” and they
had similar distribution of “Met” and “Val” alleles. In contrast,
the most frequent genotype among Caucasian participants
was “Val/Val” and they had different distribution
of “Met” and “Val” alleles. These ethnic differences require
matching participants for ethnicity in pharmacogenetic
studies and in the studies investigating genetic variations
in neuropsychiatric disorders.
Keywords
Asian subjects; BDNF val66met; Caucasians; Croatians; ethnic differences; healthy individuals; Koreans
Hrčak ID:
38306
URI
Publication date:
15.2.2009.
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