Journal of Psychiatry

Genetic variants in OXTR gene and childhood physical abuse collaborate to modify the risk of aggression in Chinese adolescents

28^th International Conference on Psychiatry and Mental Health

November 20-21, 2017 Melbourne, Australia

Yizhen Yu, Yanmei Zhang, Chunxia Wu, Hongjuan Chang, Qiuge Yan, Linguo Wu, Shanshan Yuan, Jingjing Xiang, Wen Hao and Yanmei Zhang

Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Psychiatry

Abstract:

Introduction & Objective: Accumulating evidence suggests that genetic and environmental factors may influence aggression susceptibility. Compared to some extensively studied candidate genes of aggression, very little is known about the OXTR gene. The objective of this study was to determine whether genetic variants in the OXTR gene were associated with aggression risk and whether the polymorphisms would show interactive effects with childhood maltreatment on aggressive behavior in Chinese adolescents. Methods: A total of 996 participants including 488 cases and 488 controls were selected in our study. Aggression, childhood maltreatment was measured by self-reported questionnaire. Buccal cells of all subjects were collected. Genotyping was performed using SNPscan. We explored both main effects of OXTR polymorphisms, as well as interactive effects between the polymorphisms and childhood maltreatment on aggressive behavior. Results: Participants who carried the rs237885 TT genotypes in OXTR gene had a higher risk of aggression compared to those who carried GG or GT genotypes under the recessive model (OR=1.40, 95% CI, 1.04-1.89) after controlling for potential confounders. In addition, we also found that the polymorphism had a synergic additive interaction with childhood physical abuse on the aggression risk. The synergy index (S), the Attributable Proportion due to interaction (AP) and the Relative Excess Risk due to Interaction (RERI) were 2.81 (95% CI, 1.37-5.77), 0.59 (95% CI, 0.33-0.84) and 6.69 (95% CI, 0.41-12.96), respectively. Conclusion: The present study provides evidence that genetic variants of OXTR may contribute to the susceptibility of aggression. Moreover, this is the first study reporting significant interactive effects of OXTR polymorphism and childhood physical abuse on aggressive behavior in Chinese adolescents.