Journal
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY-REVUE CANADIENNE DE PSYCHIATRIE
Volume 58, Issue 12, Pages 697-704Publisher
CANADIAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOC
DOI: 10.1177/070674371305801208
Keywords
early life stress; epigenetics; DNA methylation; DNA methylation biomarkers; socioeconomic status; stress response
Categories
Funding
- Canadian Institute of Health Research [MOP-42411]
- Sackler Program for Epigenetics and Psychobiology at McGill University
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Early life adversity is associated with long-tem impacts on behaviour and physical and mental health. The mechanisms mediating the impact of early life environment on the phenotype are proposed to involve a change in the state of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) methylation and, as a consequence, in the stable programming of gene expression. Recent studies suggest that the changes in DNA methylation affect broad genomic regions, as well as peripheral tissues in addition to brain regions. Although the data are still scarce, it points to the possibility that DNA methylation is a mechanism of genome adaptation to signals from early life social environment. This modulation of the DNA methylation pattern is proposed to result in long-term impact on the phenotype that could become maladaptive under certain contexts later in life. This model has implications on our understanding of behavioural and mental health pathologies, as well as their diagnosis and therapeutics.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available