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The long-term impact of adverse caregiving environments on epigenetic modifications and telomeres

Early childhood is a sensitive period in which infant-caregiver experiences have profound effects on brain development and behavior. Clinical studies have demonstrated that infants who experience stress and adversity in the context of caregiving are at an increased risk for the development of psychi...

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Autores principales: Blaze, Jennifer, Asok, Arun, Roth, Tania L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4389567/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25904853
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00079
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author Blaze, Jennifer
Asok, Arun
Roth, Tania L.
author_facet Blaze, Jennifer
Asok, Arun
Roth, Tania L.
author_sort Blaze, Jennifer
collection PubMed
description Early childhood is a sensitive period in which infant-caregiver experiences have profound effects on brain development and behavior. Clinical studies have demonstrated that infants who experience stress and adversity in the context of caregiving are at an increased risk for the development of psychiatric disorders. Animal models have helped to elucidate some molecular substrates of these risk factors, but a complete picture of the biological basis remains unknown. Studies continue to indicate that environmentally-driven epigenetic modifications may be an important mediator between adverse caregiving environments and psychopathology. Epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation, which normally represses gene transcription, and microRNA processing, which interferes with both transcription and translation, show long-term changes throughout the brain and body following adverse caregiving. Recent evidence has also shown that telomeres (TTAGGG nucleotide repeats that cap the ends of DNA) exhibit long-term changes in the brain and in the periphery following exposure to adverse caregiving environments. Interestingly, telomeric enzymes and subtelomeric regions are subject to epigenetic modifications—a factor which may play an important role in regulating telomere length and contribute to future mental health. This review will focus on clinical and animal studies that highlight the long-term epigenetic and telomeric changes produced by adverse caregiving in early-life.
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spelling pubmed-43895672015-04-22 The long-term impact of adverse caregiving environments on epigenetic modifications and telomeres Blaze, Jennifer Asok, Arun Roth, Tania L. Front Behav Neurosci Neuroscience Early childhood is a sensitive period in which infant-caregiver experiences have profound effects on brain development and behavior. Clinical studies have demonstrated that infants who experience stress and adversity in the context of caregiving are at an increased risk for the development of psychiatric disorders. Animal models have helped to elucidate some molecular substrates of these risk factors, but a complete picture of the biological basis remains unknown. Studies continue to indicate that environmentally-driven epigenetic modifications may be an important mediator between adverse caregiving environments and psychopathology. Epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation, which normally represses gene transcription, and microRNA processing, which interferes with both transcription and translation, show long-term changes throughout the brain and body following adverse caregiving. Recent evidence has also shown that telomeres (TTAGGG nucleotide repeats that cap the ends of DNA) exhibit long-term changes in the brain and in the periphery following exposure to adverse caregiving environments. Interestingly, telomeric enzymes and subtelomeric regions are subject to epigenetic modifications—a factor which may play an important role in regulating telomere length and contribute to future mental health. This review will focus on clinical and animal studies that highlight the long-term epigenetic and telomeric changes produced by adverse caregiving in early-life. Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-04-08 /pmc/articles/PMC4389567/ /pubmed/25904853 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00079 Text en Copyright © 2015 Blaze, Asok and Roth. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution and reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Blaze, Jennifer
Asok, Arun
Roth, Tania L.
The long-term impact of adverse caregiving environments on epigenetic modifications and telomeres
title The long-term impact of adverse caregiving environments on epigenetic modifications and telomeres
title_full The long-term impact of adverse caregiving environments on epigenetic modifications and telomeres
title_fullStr The long-term impact of adverse caregiving environments on epigenetic modifications and telomeres
title_full_unstemmed The long-term impact of adverse caregiving environments on epigenetic modifications and telomeres
title_short The long-term impact of adverse caregiving environments on epigenetic modifications and telomeres
title_sort long-term impact of adverse caregiving environments on epigenetic modifications and telomeres
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4389567/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25904853
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00079
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