![]() ![]() Timescales of genetic and epigenetic inheritance. Daddy issues: paternal effects on phenotype. Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance: myths and mechanisms. What is an epigenetic transgenerational phenotype?: F3 or F2. Variation in genome-wide mutation rates within and between human families. Not only trauma but also the reversal of trauma is inherited. Neuropsychopharmacology, advance online publication. Potential of Environmental Enrichment to Prevent Transgenerational Effects of Paternal Trauma. Source: Gapp, K., Bohacek, J., Grossmann, J., Brunner, A.M., Manuella, F., Nanni, P., Mansuy, I.M. “Now we know that this is also possible through environmental manipulations such as enriched conditions.” “Until now, only pharmacological drugs were known to correct epigenetic alterations in a consequential way for behavior,” Mansuy said. This knowledge may even help lead to novel treatments or new approaches to therapy. Research continues to explore the ways in which life experiences may be passed on epigenetically through generations. At the same time, fixing the aberrant DNA methylation pattern prevents the behavioral symptoms from being passed on to the offspring. The research team has demonstrated that the negative effect of trauma experienced as a child could be corrected by an enriched environment with low stress in adult life. “Long after the traumatic experiences themselves, living in enriched conditions reverses the behavioral symptoms in adult animals and also prevents the transmission of these symptoms to the progeny,” concluded Isabelle Mansuy, Professor of Neuroepigenetics at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich and co-author of the study. This low-stress paternal environment enrichment and subsequent amelioration of traumatic behavior symptoms is “associated with the reversal of alterations in GR gene expression and DNA methylation in the hippocampus of the male offspring,” the researchers reported. However, if the male mice experience trauma early in their lives and then later live in pleasant environmental conditions as they age, their behavior returns to normal and their offspring develop normally. The researchers believe that the changes in DNA methylation may be transmitted across generations through the sperm. Not only was this disruption observed in the hippocampus of the mice offspring, but the epigenetic changes were also found in the germ cells of the fathers of these mice, who were separated from their mothers early in life. The trauma removed some of these DNA methylation marks, thereby bolstering the activity of the gene and increasing the amount of glucocorticoid receptors produced. These receptors are responsible for binding to stress hormones like cortisone.ĭNA methylation is a well-known epigenetic mechanism that typically silences genes and is defined by the addition of a methyl group to particular locations on DNA. The increased glucocorticoid receptor expression found in this area of the brain was due to epigenetic dysregulation of the gene for glucocorticoid receptors. The hippocampus is essential for cognitive processes and plays an important role in the regulation of stress responses. According to the researchers, these changes are “accompanied by increased glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expression and decreased DNA methylation of the GR promoter in the hippocampus” of the offspring of traumatized mice. These behavioral changes come about as a result of a traumatic event experienced by mice, in this case, being unpredictably separated from their mother several times. Lead author Katharina Gapp, along with a group of scientists, are thought to be the first to show that trauma-related behavioral alterations can be epigenetically reversed in male mice. This inherited molecular memory can be detected in the child’s epigenome. ![]() The detrimental effects of such an event can be seen in the children of those who were impacted by it, despite these children never having experienced it themselves. The likelihood of developing behavioral and psychiatric disorders later in life is thought to be increased by trauma. Specifically, this reversal and removal of traumatic symptoms were found to be linked to the epigenetic regulation of the glucocorticoid receptor gene. A study, published in Neuropsychopharmacology, was conducted by researchers at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich and showed that behavioral symptoms associated with trauma in male mice and their offspring can be undone with environmental enrichment. ![]() Although still controversial, new research takes this concept a step further and demonstrates that traumatic behavior could be reversed when it would otherwise be inherited. It’s possible that the impact of traumatic experiences may be epigenetically inherited via molecular memory that is passed down through generations. ![]()
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