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Trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder modulate polygenic predictors of hippocampal and amygdala volume.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Zheng, Y; Garrett, ME; Sun, D; Clarke-Rubright, EK; Haswell, CC; Maihofer, AX; Elman, JA; Franz, CE; Lyons, MJ; Kremen, WS; Peverill, M ...
Published in: Transl Psychiatry
December 16, 2021

The volume of subcortical structures represents a reliable, quantitative, and objective phenotype that captures genetic effects, environmental effects such as trauma, and disease effects such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Trauma and PTSD represent potent exposures that may interact with genetic markers to influence brain structure and function. Genetic variants, associated with subcortical volumes in two large normative discovery samples, were used to compute polygenic scores (PGS) for the volume of seven subcortical structures. These were applied to a target sample enriched for childhood trauma and PTSD. Subcortical volume PGS from the discovery sample were strongly associated in our trauma/PTSD enriched sample (n = 7580) with respective subcortical volumes of the hippocampus (p = 1.10 × 10-20), thalamus (p = 7.46 × 10-10), caudate (p = 1.97 × 10-18), putamen (p = 1.7 × 10-12), and nucleus accumbens (p = 1.99 × 10-7). We found a significant association between the hippocampal volume PGS and hippocampal volume in control subjects from our sample, but was absent in individuals with PTSD (GxE; (beta = -0.10, p = 0.027)). This significant GxE (PGS × PTSD) relationship persisted (p < 1 × 10-19) in four out of five threshold peaks (0.024, 0.133, 0.487, 0.730, and 0.889) used to calculate hippocampal volume PGSs. We detected similar GxE (G × ChildTrauma) relationships in the amygdala for exposure to childhood trauma (rs4702973; p = 2.16 × 10-7) or PTSD (rs10861272; p = 1.78 × 10-6) in the CHST11 gene. The hippocampus and amygdala are pivotal brain structures in mediating PTSD symptomatology. Trauma exposure and PTSD modulate the effect of polygenic markers on hippocampal volume (GxE) and the amygdala volume PGS is associated with PTSD risk, which supports the role of amygdala volume as a risk factor for PTSD.

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Published In

Transl Psychiatry

DOI

EISSN

2158-3188

Publication Date

December 16, 2021

Volume

11

Issue

1

Start / End Page

637

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Humans
  • Hippocampus
  • Brain
  • Amygdala
  • 5202 Biological psychology
  • 3209 Neurosciences
  • 3202 Clinical sciences
  • 1701 Psychology
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Zheng, Y., Garrett, M. E., Sun, D., Clarke-Rubright, E. K., Haswell, C. C., Maihofer, A. X., … Morey, R. A. (2021). Trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder modulate polygenic predictors of hippocampal and amygdala volume. Transl Psychiatry, 11(1), 637. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-021-01707-x
Zheng, Yuanchao, Melanie E. Garrett, Delin Sun, Emily K. Clarke-Rubright, Courtney C. Haswell, Adam X. Maihofer, Jeremy A. Elman, et al. “Trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder modulate polygenic predictors of hippocampal and amygdala volume.Transl Psychiatry 11, no. 1 (December 16, 2021): 637. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-021-01707-x.
Zheng Y, Garrett ME, Sun D, Clarke-Rubright EK, Haswell CC, Maihofer AX, et al. Trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder modulate polygenic predictors of hippocampal and amygdala volume. Transl Psychiatry. 2021 Dec 16;11(1):637.
Zheng, Yuanchao, et al. “Trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder modulate polygenic predictors of hippocampal and amygdala volume.Transl Psychiatry, vol. 11, no. 1, Dec. 2021, p. 637. Pubmed, doi:10.1038/s41398-021-01707-x.
Zheng Y, Garrett ME, Sun D, Clarke-Rubright EK, Haswell CC, Maihofer AX, Elman JA, Franz CE, Lyons MJ, Kremen WS, Peverill M, Sambrook K, McLaughlin KA, Davenport ND, Disner S, Sponheim SR, Andrew E, Korgaonkar M, Bryant R, Varkevisser T, Geuze E, Coleman J, Beckham JC, Kimbrel NA, Sullivan D, Miller M, Hayes J, Verfaellie M, Wolf E, Salat D, Spielberg JM, Milberg W, McGlinchey R, Dennis EL, Thompson PM, Medland S, Jahanshad N, Nievergelt CM, Ashley-Koch AE, Logue MW, Morey RA. Trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder modulate polygenic predictors of hippocampal and amygdala volume. Transl Psychiatry. 2021 Dec 16;11(1):637.

Published In

Transl Psychiatry

DOI

EISSN

2158-3188

Publication Date

December 16, 2021

Volume

11

Issue

1

Start / End Page

637

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Humans
  • Hippocampus
  • Brain
  • Amygdala
  • 5202 Biological psychology
  • 3209 Neurosciences
  • 3202 Clinical sciences
  • 1701 Psychology