The role of environmental stress and DNA methylation in the longitudinal course of bipolar disorder.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Stressful life events influence the course of affective disorders, however, the mechanisms by which they bring about phenotypic change are not entirely known.

Methods

We explored the role of DNA methylation in response to recent stressful life events in a cohort of bipolar patients from the longitudinal PsyCourse study (n = 96). Peripheral blood DNA methylomes were profiled at two time points for over 850,000 methylation sites. The association between impact ratings of stressful life events and DNA methylation was assessed, first by interrogating methylation sites in the vicinity of candidate genes previously implicated in the stress response and, second, by conducting an exploratory epigenome-wide association analysis. Third, the association between epigenetic ag

SUBMITTER: Comes AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7013010 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature