BDNF基因与抑郁

BDNF gene and depression

抑郁的发生发展具有重要的遗传基础。随着细胞分子生物学实验方法以及分子遗传技术的进步,与神经可塑性有关的BDNF基因作为抑郁遗传学研究的候选基因日益受到关注。概观而言,已有相关研究主要探查了BDNF基因与抑郁的直接关联,BDNF基因与其他基因对抑郁的交互作用,以及环境因素对BDNF基因与抑郁关系的调节作用。然而,研究结论尚存在分歧甚至相互矛盾。其原因包括研究设计、环境测量指标、抑郁测量方法与研究对象种族背景等方面的差异。未来研究可通过采用多基因–环境设计,考察被试种族、性别和年龄的调节作用,以及探究潜在的作用机制等进一步推进和深化有关BDNF基因与抑郁关系的研究。

It has been well documented that the etiology and development of depression have important genetic underpinnings. With the advancement of experimental methods of cellular and molecular biology and analysis techniques of molecular genetics, there is growing concern about BDNF gene, which relates to neural plasticity and found to be an important candidate gene of depression. Generally, existing studies had mainly explored the direct association between BDNF gene and depression, the interaction between BDNF gene and other genes, as well as the moderating effect of environmental factors on the association between BDNF gene and depression. However, the conclusions have been inconsistent and even contradictory in some cases. This might be due to the differences in research designs, indexes of environment measurement, methods of depression measurement, and participants＇ ethnic backgrounds of extant studies. Future research should focus on such issues as multiple gene–environment effects on depression, the moderation effect of participants＇ ethnicity, gender and age on the association between genes and depression, and the neural biological mechanisms underlying depression.