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

Abstract

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 life-long neurobiological sequelae of CM, and strongly determining psychopathological risk.

Keywords: DNA methylation; childhood maltreatment; epigenetic; glucocorticoid receptor; maternal care; stress.