Association study of catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met polymorphism with personality traits in japanese healthy volunteers

Abstract

Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is one of the major enzymes for the degradation of catecholamines. It has been suggested that catecholaminergic neurotransmission is involved in characterization of personality. Previous studies on the association between the COMT Val158Met polymorphism and personality traits in healthy subjects have produced inconsistent results. Therefore, the relationship between this polymorphism and personality was re-examined in 478 Japanese healthy volunteers. Personality traits were assessed by the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), and the COMT genotypes were determined by a PCR-RFLP method. In total, there were no significant differences among the Val/Val, Val/Met, and Met/Met genotypes in seven TCI dimension scores. Similarly, no significant relationship was found between the COMT genotypes and the TCI dimensions when males and females were analyzed separately. The present study thus suggests that the COMT Val158Met polymorphism is not associated with personality traits in Japanese healthy subjects.

Sex Modulates the Associations Between the COMT Gene and Personality Traits

“…Traits such as harm avoidance (HA) in TCI, neuroticism in NEO, and BIS all belong to negative emotionality (NEM), whereas novelty seeking (NS) in TCI, extraversion in NEO, and BAS belong to positive emotionality (PEM; Reuter et al, 2006b). Associations between COMT Val/Met and PEM/NEM were quite mixed, with nine studies showing no significant associations (Strobel et al, 2003;Tochigi et al, 2006;Ishii et al, 2007;Light et al, 2007;Urata et al, 2007;Sheldrick et al, 2008;Calati et al, 2011;Kang et al, 2010;Salo et al, 2010), seven studies showing the Val allele associated with high PEM or low NEM (Enoch et al, 2003;Tsai et al, 2004;Reuter and Hennig, 2005;Stein et al, 2005;Hoth et al, 2006;Hashimoto et al, 2007;Wacker and Gatt, 2010), and three studies showing the opposite (Met allele associated with high PEM or low NEM; Kim et al, 2006;Golimbet et al, 2007;Demetrovics et al, 2010), and three studies reported opposite pattern for males and females (Eley et al, 2003;Reuter et al, 2006b;Lang et al, 2007).…”

“…For example, Rujescu et al (2003) found that the COMT gene's association with state and trait anger differed for healthy controls than for suicide attempters. Age is another potential confound because it is negatively correlated with traits such as NS (Ishii et al, 2007;Light et al, 2007) and HA (Hashimoto et al, 2007;Light et al, 2007). Biochemical studies have also reported that COMT activity level rises considerably in men between the third and fifth decade of life (Tunbridge et al, 2007).…”

“…This amino acid substitution influences the thermal stability and activity of COMT, such that the COMT activity in human prefrontal cortex is about 35-50% lower in Met homozygotes than in Val homozygotes . As a result, dopamine signaling is likely to be enhanced in Met carriers as compared with Val carriers, thus resulting in potential differences in prefrontal cognitive function Barnett et al, 2008;Goldman et al, 2009) and personality (Benjamin et al, 2000;Eley et al, 2003;Enoch et al, 2003;Tsai et al, 2004;Olsson et al, 2005;Reuter and Hennig, 2005;Stein et al, 2005;Kim et al, 2006;Reuter et al, 2006a;Tochigi et al, 2006;Golimbet et al, 2007;Hashimoto et al, 2007;Ishii et al, 2007;Lang et al, 2007;Light et al, 2007).…”

Association of monoamine-synthesizing genes with the depression tendency and personality in chronic fatigue syndrome patients

“…In a previous study that examined the association between NS and the SNPs in healthy Japanese males, the authors proposed that lower levels of dopamine, NO, and serotonin caused by the GCH and TH polymorphism may have induced the low NS scores (Sadahiro et al, 2010(Sadahiro et al, , 2011. Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is one of the major enzymes for degradation of catecholamines, and a significant correlation was observed between COMT Val158Met polymorphism and HA in healthy females (Kim et al, 2006), and NS scores were positively correlated with plasma norepinephrine levels in healthy males (Ishii et al, 2007), while no correlation in healthy population was also reported (Gerra et al, 1999). Therefore it is unclear whether catecholamines might be correlated with some TCI personality domains even in healthy subjects.…”

Gender-Specific Association between the COMT Val158Met Polymorphism and Openness to Experience in Panic Disorder Patients

“…The COMT Val158Met polymorphism was not found to be associated with personality traits in healthy Japanese subjects [26]. Kim et al [24] reported that the COMT Val158Met polymorphism was significantly associated with harm avoidance in female Korean control subjects.…”