Prenatal stress-induced programming of genome-wide promoter DNA methylation in 5-HTT-deficient mice.

ABSTRACT: The serotonin transporter gene (5-HTT/SLC6A4)-linked polymorphic region has been suggested to have a modulatory role in mediating effects of early-life stress exposure on psychopathology rendering carriers of the low-expression short (s)-variant more vulnerable to environmental adversity in later life. The underlying molecular mechanisms of this gene-by-environment interaction are not well understood, but epigenetic regulation including differential DNA methylation has been postulated to have a critical role. Recently, we used a maternal restraint stress paradigm of prenatal stress (PS) in 5-HTT-deficient mice and showed that the effects on behavior and gene expression were particularly marked in the hippocampus of female 5-Htt+/- offspring. Here, we examined to which extent these effects

SUBMITTER: Schraut KG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4350514 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature