Natural variation in maternal care and cross-tissue patterns of oxytocin receptor gene methylation in rats.

ABSTRACT: This article is part of a Special Issue "Parental Care". Since the first report of maternal care effects on DNA methylation in rats, epigenetic modifications of the genome in response to life experience have become the subject of intense focus across many disciplines. Oxytocin receptor expression varies in response to early experience, and both oxytocin signaling and methylation status of the oxytocin receptor gene (Oxtr) in blood have been related to disordered social behavior. It is unknown whether Oxtr DNA methylation varies in response to early life experience, and whether currently employed peripheral measures of Oxtr methylation reflect variation in the brain. We examined the effects of early life rearing experience via natural variation in maternal licking and grooming during the fi

SUBMITTER: Beery AK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4691570 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature