Association of Stmn1 Polymorphism and Cognitive Function: An Observational Study in the Chinese Adults

Stathmin1 (Stmn1) is a protein highly expressed during the development of the central nervous system. The phosphorylation of Stmn1 involves microtubule dynamics, so Stmn1 plays a vital part in neurite outgrowth and synaptic plasticity. Previous studies reported that Stmn1 genetic variants influence fear and anxiety as well as cognitive-affective processing. However, no study reported on the relationship between Stmn1 gene polymorphism and cognition in Chinese. Thus, this association was investigated in the present study.

A total of 129 healthy Han Chinese were genotyped for Stmn1 rs182455 polymorphism by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses. Cognitive function was assessed using the Stroop Color-Word Test (SCWT) and Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R).

In the present sample, rs182455 CC, CT, and TT genotypes were found in 56 (43.41%), 65 (50.39%) and 8 (6.20%) cases, respectively. The genotype distribution did not deviate from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (χ² = 3.715, p = 0.054). Significant differences were found between the three rs182455 genotypes and between the CC and (CT+TT) genotype groups in the Stroop Color (SC) scores of the SCWT (F = 3.322, 2.377; p = 0.039, 0.019, respectively) and the total recall (TR) scores on the HVLT-R (F = 3.118, 2.225; p = 0.048, 0.028, respectively). There was a female-specific difference in SC scores between the three rs182455 genotypes (F = 2.318, p = 0.023). The rs182455 genotype distribution showed no significant difference between two sexes (χ² = 1.313, p = 0.519), whereas significant differences were seen in SC and TR scores between two sexes (t = -2.294, -2.490; p = 0.023, 0.014, respectively).

The findings suggest that rs182455 Stmn1 polymorphism might affect cognitive flexibility and immediate free recall in healthy Chinese individuals, especially females.