Journal article
Seasonal Changes in Brain Serotonin Transporter Binding in Short Serotonin Transporter Linked Polymorphic Region-Allele Carriers but Not in Long-Allele Homozygotes
A polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) has been associated with seasonality both in patients with seasonal affective disorder and in the general population. Method: We used in vivo molecular imaging to measure cerebral serotonin transporter (5-HTT) binding in 57 healthy Scandinavians and related the outcome to season of the year and to the 5-HTTLPR carrier status.
Results: We found that the number of daylight minutes at the time of scanning correlated negatively with 5-HTT binding in the putamen and the caudate, with a similar tendency in the thalamus, whereas this association was not observed for the midbrain. Furthermore, in the putamen, an anatomic region with relatively dense serotonin innervation, we found a significant gene X daylight effect, such that there was a negative correlation between 5-HTT binding and daylight minutes in carriers of the short 5-HTTLPR allele but not in homozygote carriers of the long allele.
Conclusions: Our findings are in line with S-carriers having an increased response in neural circuits involved in emotional processing to stressful environmental stimuli but here demonstrated as a endophenotype with dynamic changes in serotonin reuptake.
Language: | English |
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Year: | 2010 |
Pages: | 1033-1039 |
ISSN: | 18732402 and 00063223 |
Types: | Journal article |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.11.027 |
ORCIDs: | Nielsen, Finn Årup |
5-HTTLPR Adult Alleles Brain Brain Mapping DASB Female Gene Frequency Genotype Humans Image Processing, Computer-Assisted Magnetic Resonance Imaging Male Middle Aged Periodicity Polymorphism, Genetic Radionuclide Imaging Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins White People endophenotype s-allele seasonality serotonin transporter