How a common variant in the growth factor receptor gene, NTRK1, affects white matter.

ABSTRACT: Growth factors and their receptors are important for cellular migration as well as axonal guidance and myelination in the brain. They also play a key role in programmed cell death, and are implicated in a number of mental illnesses. Recently, we reported that healthy young adults who carry the T allele variant in the growth factor gene, NTRK1 (at location rs6336), had lower white matter integrity than non-carriers on diffusion images of the brain. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) revealed how this single nucleotide polymorphism affects white matter microstructure in human populations; DTI is also used to identify characteristic features of brain connectivity in typically developing children and in patients. Newly discovered links between neuroimaging measures and growth factors whose molecul

SUBMITTER: Braskie MN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3696063 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Sep-Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature