DNA methylation of the NR3C1 promoter region in brains of pediatric victims of physical abuse

ABSTRACT

Early life stress (ELS) has been suggested to cause epigenetic changes to genes in the brain, such as the Nuclear Receptor Subfamily 3, Group C, Member 1 gene (NR3C1). Conversely, evaluation of the epigenetic status in the postmortem brain might provide clues to the antemortem ELS experience. We examined DNA methylation of the 1F promoter region of NR3C1 in the postmortem brains of eight children including four ELS cases. As a result, DNA methylation was evident in ELS cases due to severe physical abuse. Epigenetic status may have potential application as a biomarker for clarifying the antemortem experiences of deceased.

KEYWORDS:

• Early life stress
• abuse
• NR3C1
• DNA methylation
• laser microdissection
• autopsy
• postmortem brain
• pediatric brain

Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 16K19293 to Y.T., 15K08866 to R.K., 26293161 and 16K15399 to Y.K. We thank Prof. Masato Fukuda at Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine for encouragement of this research. We also thank Ms. Yumi Kanzawa, Ms. Akari Tokunaga, Mr. Fuhito Arai, and Mr. Masato Omata for technical assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science [15K08866, 16K15399, 16K19293, 26293161].