Association study of KIBRA gene with memory performance in a Japanese population

Papassotiropoulos et al. (Science 314: p 475) discovered that a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of the KIBRA gene (rs17070145) was associated with delayed recall performance in Caucasians. KIBRA is highly expressed in the brain and kidneys, and is reported to be involved in synaptic plasticity. Therefore, we first tried to replicate the association between the SNP and memory performance in a Japanese subjects.

We examined the association between the SNP and memory performance measured by the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R) in 187 healthy Japanese people.

The T allele carriers had significantly better verbal memory, attention/concentration and delayed recall performance than the C/C carriers (corrected P = 0.044, 0.047 and 0.0084, respectively). Furthermore, the C/T carriers and the T/T carriers had better delayed recall performance than the C/C carriers (post hoc P = 0.0017 and 0.0096).

This data suggest that the C/C genotype might have an impact on memory performance in Asian populations as well as in Caucasian populations. Further investigation to clarify the association of the KIBRA gene with memory in other ethnic groups is warranted.