Maternal epigenetic index links early neglect to later neglectful care and other psychopathological, cognitive, and bonding effects.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Past experiences of maltreatment and life adversity induce DNA methylation changes in adults, but less is known about their impact on mothers' maladaptive neglectful parenting and its negative effects. We performed an epigenome-wide association study to investigate the role of DNA methylation levels in mothers with neglectful care, who were exposed to childhood maltreatment and neglect, and their current negative effects. Saliva DNA methylation was determined with the Illumina Human Methylation EPIC BeadChip v1. The individual epigenome was the input to a machine learning algorithm for trajectory inference, which assigned a specific state to each mother in the progression from healthy controls to the extreme neglect condition. A compound epigenetic maternal neglect score

SUBMITTER: Leon I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11890505 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature