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Pain-related stress during the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit stay and SLC6A4 methylation in very preterm infants

Very preterm (VPT) infants need long-lasting hospitalization in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) during which they are daily exposed to pain-related stress. Alterations of DNA methylation at the promoter region of the SLC6A4 have been associated with early adverse experiences in infants. The...

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Autores principales: Provenzi, Livio, Fumagalli, Monica, Sirgiovanni, Ida, Giorda, Roberto, Pozzoli, Uberto, Morandi, Francesco, Beri, Silvana, Menozzi, Giorgia, Mosca, Fabio, Borgatti, Renato, Montirosso, Rosario
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4403508/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25941480
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00099
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author Provenzi, Livio
Fumagalli, Monica
Sirgiovanni, Ida
Giorda, Roberto
Pozzoli, Uberto
Morandi, Francesco
Beri, Silvana
Menozzi, Giorgia
Mosca, Fabio
Borgatti, Renato
Montirosso, Rosario
author_facet Provenzi, Livio
Fumagalli, Monica
Sirgiovanni, Ida
Giorda, Roberto
Pozzoli, Uberto
Morandi, Francesco
Beri, Silvana
Menozzi, Giorgia
Mosca, Fabio
Borgatti, Renato
Montirosso, Rosario
author_sort Provenzi, Livio
collection PubMed
description Very preterm (VPT) infants need long-lasting hospitalization in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) during which they are daily exposed to pain-related stress. Alterations of DNA methylation at the promoter region of the SLC6A4 have been associated with early adverse experiences in infants. The main aim of the present work was to investigate the association between level of exposure to pain-related stress during hospitalization and changes in SLC6A4 DNA methylation at NICU discharge in VPT infants. In order to exclude the potential effect of birth status (i.e., preterm vs. full-term birth) on SLC6A4 methylation, we preliminarily assessed SLC6A4 epigenetic differences between VPT and full-term (FT) infants at birth. Fifty-six VPT and thirty-two FT infants participated in the study. The level of exposure to pain-related stress was quantified on the basis of the amount of skin-breaking procedures to which they were exposed. VPT infants were divided in two sub-groups: low-pain exposure (LPE, N = 25) and high-pain exposure (HPE, N = 31). DNA methylation was evaluated at birth for both VPT and FT infants, assessing 20 CpG sites within the SLC6A4 promoter region. The same CpG sites were re-evaluated for variations in DNA methylation at NICU discharge in LPE and HPE VPT infants. No differences in SLC6A4 CpG sites' methylation emerged between FT and VPT infants at birth. Methylation at CpG sites 5 and 6 significantly increased from birth to NICU discharge only for HPE VPT infants. Findings show that preterm birth per se is not associated with epigenetic alterations of the SLC6A4, whereas higher levels of pain-related stress exposure during NICU stay might alter the transcriptional functionality of the serotonin transporter gene.
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spelling pubmed-44035082015-05-04 Pain-related stress during the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit stay and SLC6A4 methylation in very preterm infants Provenzi, Livio Fumagalli, Monica Sirgiovanni, Ida Giorda, Roberto Pozzoli, Uberto Morandi, Francesco Beri, Silvana Menozzi, Giorgia Mosca, Fabio Borgatti, Renato Montirosso, Rosario Front Behav Neurosci Neuroscience Very preterm (VPT) infants need long-lasting hospitalization in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) during which they are daily exposed to pain-related stress. Alterations of DNA methylation at the promoter region of the SLC6A4 have been associated with early adverse experiences in infants. The main aim of the present work was to investigate the association between level of exposure to pain-related stress during hospitalization and changes in SLC6A4 DNA methylation at NICU discharge in VPT infants. In order to exclude the potential effect of birth status (i.e., preterm vs. full-term birth) on SLC6A4 methylation, we preliminarily assessed SLC6A4 epigenetic differences between VPT and full-term (FT) infants at birth. Fifty-six VPT and thirty-two FT infants participated in the study. The level of exposure to pain-related stress was quantified on the basis of the amount of skin-breaking procedures to which they were exposed. VPT infants were divided in two sub-groups: low-pain exposure (LPE, N = 25) and high-pain exposure (HPE, N = 31). DNA methylation was evaluated at birth for both VPT and FT infants, assessing 20 CpG sites within the SLC6A4 promoter region. The same CpG sites were re-evaluated for variations in DNA methylation at NICU discharge in LPE and HPE VPT infants. No differences in SLC6A4 CpG sites' methylation emerged between FT and VPT infants at birth. Methylation at CpG sites 5 and 6 significantly increased from birth to NICU discharge only for HPE VPT infants. Findings show that preterm birth per se is not associated with epigenetic alterations of the SLC6A4, whereas higher levels of pain-related stress exposure during NICU stay might alter the transcriptional functionality of the serotonin transporter gene. Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-04-21 /pmc/articles/PMC4403508/ /pubmed/25941480 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00099 Text en Copyright © 2015 Provenzi, Fumagalli, Sirgiovanni, Giorda, Pozzoli, Morandi, Beri, Menozzi, Mosca, Borgatti and Montirosso. 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 or 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
Provenzi, Livio
Fumagalli, Monica
Sirgiovanni, Ida
Giorda, Roberto
Pozzoli, Uberto
Morandi, Francesco
Beri, Silvana
Menozzi, Giorgia
Mosca, Fabio
Borgatti, Renato
Montirosso, Rosario
Pain-related stress during the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit stay and SLC6A4 methylation in very preterm infants
title Pain-related stress during the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit stay and SLC6A4 methylation in very preterm infants
title_full Pain-related stress during the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit stay and SLC6A4 methylation in very preterm infants
title_fullStr Pain-related stress during the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit stay and SLC6A4 methylation in very preterm infants
title_full_unstemmed Pain-related stress during the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit stay and SLC6A4 methylation in very preterm infants
title_short Pain-related stress during the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit stay and SLC6A4 methylation in very preterm infants
title_sort pain-related stress during the neonatal intensive care unit stay and slc6a4 methylation in very preterm infants
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4403508/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25941480
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00099
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