DNA methylation and childhood maltreatment: From animal models to human studies

Pierre-Eric Lutz (1) , G. Turecki

1 INCI - Institut des Neurosciences Cellulaires et Intégratives

Childhood maltreatment (CM) has estimated prevalence among Western societies between 10 and 15%. As CM associates with increased risk of several psychiatric disorders, early age of illness onset, increased comorbidity and negative clinical outcome, it imposes a major public health, social and economic impact. Although the clinical consequences of CM are well characterized, a major challenge remains to understand how negative early life events can affect brain function over extended periods of time. We review here both animal and human studies indicating that the epigenetic mechanism of DNA methylation is a crucial mediator of early life experiences, thereby maintaining lifelong neurobiological sequelae of CM, and strongly determining psychopathological risk.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Pierre-Eric Lutz, G. Turecki. DNA methylation and childhood maltreatment: From animal models to human studies. Neuroscience, 2014, 264, pp.142-156. ⟨10.1016/j.neuroscience.2013.07.069⟩. ⟨hal-02437510⟩