Harsh Parenting Predicts Novel HPA Receptor Gene Methylation and NR3C1 Methylation Predicts Cortisol Daily Slope in Middle Childhood.

Harsh Parenting Predicts Novel HPA Receptor Gene Methylation and NR3C1 Methylation Predicts Cortisol Daily Slope in Middle Childhood. Cell Mol Neurobiol. 2020 May 29;: Authors: Lewis CR, Breitenstein RS, Henderson A, Sowards HA, Piras IS, Huentelman MJ, Doane LD, Lemery-Chalfant K Abstract Adverse experiences in childhood are associated with altered hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function and negative health outcomes throughout life. It is now commonly accepted that abuse and neglect can alter epigenetic regulation of HPA genes. Accumulated evidence suggests harsh parenting practices such as spanking are also strong predictors of negative health outcomes. We predicted harsh parenting at 2.5 years old would predict HPA gene DNA methylation similarly to abuse and neglect, and cortisol output at 8.5 years old. Saliva samples were collected three times a day across 3 days to estimate cortisol diurnal slopes. Methylation was quantified using the Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC array BeadChip (850 K) with DNA collected from buccal cells. We used principal components analysis to compute a summary statistic for CpG sites across candidate genes. The first and second components were used as outcome variables in mixed linear regression analyses with harsh parenting as a predictor variable. We found harsh parenting significantly predicted methylation of several HPA axis genes, including novel gene associations with AVPRB1, CRHR1,...
Source: Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology - Category: Cytology Authors: Tags: Cell Mol Neurobiol Source Type: research