ObjectiveTo study the associations of Val66Met functional polymorphism in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)with creativity and personality traits in a healthy college student population.MethodThe creativity performance and personality traits of the 830 healthy college students (272 males and 558females) were assessed with Williams Creativity Scale (CAP) and adult Eysenek Personality Questionnaire (EPQ),then study was performed on the association Val66Met in BDNF with creativity and personality traits.ResultsThe results indicated that Val66Met was significantly associated with the curiosity of CAP (F=0.519,P=0.036).The numbers of Val allele showed a positive correlation to the performance of curiosity.Val66Val genotype individuals had the best performance (31.924 ± 4.010 ) while the Met66Met ones showed the worst performante(30.889 ± 3.478).However,the association of Val66Met with the personality traits of EPQ was uot significant in the study (P＞ 0.05).Furthermore,there was no a significant effect of the interaction between the genetic variant and Extraversion/Introversion on the curiosity of CAP (P =0.747 ).ConclusionThe present study suggests that Val66Met in BDNF contributes to creativity,but not to personality traits in the population.

Objective To investigate the clinical significance and changes of serum interleukin-4 (IL-4),interferon-γ(IFN-γ) and immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels in infants with spasmodic laryngitis.Methods Serum samples were obtained from 50 children with spasmodic laryngitis and 30 healthy children.The changes of IL-4,IFN-γand IgE levels in serum when hospital admission (acute stage),before discharge (the stage of clinical symptom disappeared) and after 2 months of follow-up were observed.Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to determine the levels of IL-4 and IFN-γ in serum.Serum IgE level was determined with enzyme-linked fluoroimmuneassay.Results The serum level of IL-4 in patients with spasmodic laryngitis during acute stage were much higher than that in normal control group[(20.65 ±5.87) ng/L vs(8.23 ±2.71) ng/L,t =5.536,P ＜0.05].It was decreased during the stage of clinical symptom disappeared and significantly lower than that during acute stage[(11.07 ± 2.93) ng/L vs (20.65 ± 5.87) ng/L,F =5.258,P ＜ 0.05].The serum level of IFN-γ in patients with spasmodic laryngitis during acute stage were much lower than that in normal control group[(61.38 ±6.36) ng/L vs (108.42 ± 13.56) ng/L,t =4.831,P ＜ 0.05],and it was increased during the stage of clinical symptom disappeared [(95.12 ± 11.63) ng/L] and significantly higher than that during acute stage(F =4.239,P ＜ 0.05).There was no difference between the patients at clinical symptom disappeared stage and normal control group (P ＞ 0.05).Two months after discharge,there was no difference in serum INF-γlevel between the patients [(75.68 ±6.29) ng/L] and that in control group (P ＞ 0.05).The serum level of IgE in patients with spasmodic laryngitis during acute stage were much higher than that in normal control group [(136.63 ± 17.86) ng/L vs (47.16 ± 6.83) ng/L,t =6.685,P ＜ 0.05].It was decreased during the stage of clinical symptom disappeared [(88.07 ± 11.83) μg/L] and significantly lower than that during acute stage(F =5.182,P ＜ 0.05),but higher than that of normal control group (P ＜ 0.05).Two months after discharge [(86.72 ± 7.25) μg/L] it was still higher than that in control group (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions There is TH1/TH2 imbalance in infants with spasmodic laryngitis.Maybe spasmodic laryngitis is one of the clinical manifestations of atopic diseases.IL-4,IFN-γand IgE may play important roles in immunologic pathogenesis.