This 2019 McGill review discussed long-lasting effects of perinatal stress: “Epigenetic processes are involved in embedding the impact of early-life experience in the genome and mediating between social environments and later behavioral phenotypes. Since these phenotypes are apparent a long time after early experience, changes in gene expression programming must be stable. Although loss of … Continue reading The epigenetics of perinatal stress
This 2019 McGill rodent study found: “Prenatal stress exacerbates pain after injury. Analysis of mRNA expression of genes related to epigenetic regulation and stress responses in the frontal cortex and hippocampus, brain structures implicated in chronic pain, showed distinct sex and region-specific patterns of dysregulation. In general, mRNA expression was most frequently altered in the … Continue reading Prenatal stress heightened adult chronic pain
This 2019 McGill paper reviewed human and animal studies on brain-shaping influences from the fetal period through childhood: “In neonates, regions of the methylome that are highly variable across individuals are explained by the genotype alone in 25 percent of cases. The best explanation for 75 percent of variably methylated regions is the interaction of … Continue reading Our brains are shaped by our early environments
This 2018 McGill paper reviewed findings from animal and human studies on the relationships between drug-seeking behavior and epigenetic DNA methylation: “Although there is an increasing line of evidence from preclinical models of addiction, there are only a few human studies that systematically assessed DNA methylation in addiction. Most of the studies were done on … Continue reading Addictive behavior and epigenetic DNA methylation
This 2018 McGill/UC San Diego rodent study subject was the dentate gyrus area of the hippocampus: “Early life experience influences stress reactivity and mental health through effects on cognitive-emotional functions that are, in part, linked to gene expression in the dorsal and ventral hippocampus. The hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) is a major site for experience-dependent … Continue reading An emotional center of our brains
Dr. Moshe Szyf of McGill University explains current rodent epigenetic research into addiction in this October 2016 interview. “What happens during the time when there’s no drug [cocaine] exposure, there’s just the memory of the original drug exposure? And we found huge epigenetics changes during this time, the time of abstinence. It actually suggests that … Continue reading Epigenetics and addiction
This 2015 Canadian rodent study by McGill researchers found: “The critical involvement of DNA methylation in chronic pain. We show that in the PFC [prefrontal cortex], a brain region strongly implicated in chronic pain, a stunning number of promoters [control gene expression] are differentially methylated 9 months after injury. These changes are distant both in … Continue reading Chronic pain causes epigenetic changes in the brain and immune system
This 2015 Canadian human study by McGill researchers found: “Differential methylation is primarily non-genetic in origin, with non-shared environment accounting for most of the variance. These non-genetic effects are mainly tissue-specific. The full scope of environmental variation remains underappreciated.” The researchers developed their findings using adipose and blood samples from monozygotic and dizygotic twins in … Continue reading The primary causes of individual differences in DNA methylation are environmental factors
This 2012 McGill University rodent study found: “Variations in maternal care in the rat affect hippocampal morphology and function as well as performance on hippocampal-dependent tests of learning and memory in the offspring. Thus, in the rat, as in humans, social influences operate during early life to influence the structure and function of brain regions … Continue reading A mother’s care affects the infant’s hippocampus structure and function through epigenetic regulation of genes
This 2012 human study was done by McGill University, whose researchers in Canada are at the forefront of epigenetic studies. The subject was epigenetic DNA methylation in the hippocampus of people who experienced abuse as children and who also committed suicide. Comparisons were made with rats that were stressed in early life to identify genomic … Continue reading Conserved epigenetic sensitivity to early life experience in the hippocampus
