Estrogen-dependent association of HDAC4 with fear in female mice and women with PTSD.

ABSTRACT: Women are at increased risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following a traumatic event. Recent studies suggest that this may be mediated, in part, by circulating estrogen levels. This study evaluated the hypothesis that individual variation in response to estrogen levels contributes to fear regulation and PTSD risk in women. We evaluated DNA methylation from blood of female participants in the Grady Trauma Project and found that serum estradiol levels associates with DNA methylation across the genome. For genes expressed in blood, we examined the association between each CpG site and PTSD diagnosis using linear models that adjusted for cell proportions and age. After multiple test correction, PTSD associated with methylation of CpG sites in the HDAC4 gene, which encode

SUBMITTER: Maddox SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5513798 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature