Interaction of COMT and KIBRA modulates the association between hippocampal structure and episodic memory performance in healthy young adults

• Published in: Behavioural brain research Vol. 384; p. 112550
• Main Authors: Wang, Junxia, Wu, Sichu, Sun, Yi, Fang, Yu, Wu, Rui, Lu, Jiaming, Qing, Zhao, Liang, Xue, Wang, Zhengge, Zhang, Wen, Chen, Qian, Cao, Ping, Zhang, Bing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 20.04.2020
• Subjects: Attention; CA1 Region, Hippocampal - anatomy & histology; CA1 Region, Hippocampal - diagnostic imaging; CA3 Region, Hippocampal - anatomy & histology; CA3 Region, Hippocampal - diagnostic imaging; Catechol O-Methyltransferase - genetics; COMT; Female; Genotype; Hippocampus; Hippocampus - anatomy & histology; Hippocampus - diagnostic imaging; Humans; Interaction; Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins - genetics; KIBRA; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Memory; Memory, Episodic; Memory, Short-Term; Organ Size - genetics; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Young Adult; KIBRA; Magnetic resonance imaging; COMT; Interaction; Memory; Hippocampus
• ISSN: 0166-4328; 1872-7549
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2020.112550

•Human memory is a complex, polygenic cognitive trait and closely related to the hippocampus.•COMT rs4680 and KIBRA rs17070145 have interaction effects on the hippocampal subfield volumes, mainly on the right CA1 and CA3.•The interaction of COMT and KIBRA modulates the relationship between the hippocampal structure and episodic memory performance.•Polygenetic factors play an important role in the hippocampus and memory formation. Genetic variations of COMT and KIBRA, which were reported to be expressed in the hippocampus, have been linked to memory function. However, their interaction on the hippocampal structure remains unknown. This study aimed to explore the interaction effects of COMT rs4680 and KIBRA rs17070145 on the hippocampal subfield volumes and test their associations with hippocampus-memory relationship in 187 healthy young adults. Two-way analysis of covariance was applied to the alterations in hippocampal subfield volumes among COMT and KIBRA genotypes. Significant interaction effects of these two genes were found in the right CA1 and CA3 subfields. Among KIBRA C-allele carriers, COMT Val/Val homozygotes showed greater volume in these regions than COMT Met-allele carriers. Furthermore, the slope of the correlation between right CA1 volume and immediate recall on the California Verbal Learning Test-II (CVLT-II) (F = 4.36, p = 0.041) as well as CVLT-II delayed recall (F = 6.44, p = 0.014) were significantly different between COMT Val/Val homozygotes and Met-allele carriers, which were positive or tend to be positive in COMT Val/Val group (CVLT immediate recall, r = 0.319, p = 0.040; CVLT delayed recall, r = 0.304, p = 0.051), but absent in COMT Met-allele carriers (CVLT immediate recall, r = -0.263, p = 0.205; CVLT delayed recall, r = -0.351, p = 0.086). These findings may provide a novel insight into the genetic effects upon the hippocampal structure and suggest that the conjoint effects of COMT and KIBRA played a modulatory role in the hippocampus-episodic memory correlation.