Increased DNA methylation in the suicide brain.

Increased DNA methylation in the suicide brain. Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2014 Sep;16(3):430-8 Authors: Haghighi F, Xin Y, Chanrion B, O'Donnell AH, Ge Y, Dwork AJ, Arango V, Mann JJ Abstract Clinical studies find that childhood adversity and stress-ful life events in adulthood increase the risk for major depression and for suicide. The predispositions to either major depression or suicide are thought to depend on genetic risk factors or epigenetic effects. We investigated DNA methylation signatures postmortem in brains of suicides with diagnosis of major depressive disorder. DNA methylation levels were determined at single C-phosphate-G (CpG) resolution sites within ventral prefrontal cortex of 53 suicides and nonpsychiatric controls, aged 16 to 89 years. We found that DNA methylation increases throughout the lifespan. Suicides showed an 8-fold greater number of methylated CpG sites relative to controls (P<2.2x10-16), with greater DNA methylation changes over and above the increased methylation observed in normal aging. This increased DNA methylation may be a significant contributor to the neuropathology and psychopathology underlying the risk of suicide in depression. PMID: 25364291 [PubMed - in process]
Source: Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience - Category: Neuroscience Tags: Dialogues Clin Neurosci Source Type: research