Journal
BRAIN RESEARCH BULLETIN
Volume 98, Issue -, Pages 76-92Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.brainresbull.2013.07.003
Keywords
Epigenetics; Gene expression; Brain; Limbic system; Stress; Behavior
Categories
Funding
- Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education Grant Iuventus Plus [IP2011 030371]
- Polish Scientific Committee Grant [2011/03/N/NZ29/05222]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Recent findings in epigenetics shed new light on the regulation of gene expression in the central nervous system (CNS) during stress. The most frequently studied epigenetic mechanisms are DNA methylation, histone modifications and microRNA activity. These mechanisms stably determine cell phenotype but can also be responsible for dynamic molecular adaptations of the CNS to stressors. The limbic-hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (LHPA) is the primary circuit that initiates, regulates and terminates a stress response. The same brain areas that control stress also react to stress dynamically and with long-term consequences. One of the biological processes evoking potent adaptive changes in the CNS such as changes in behavior, gene activity or synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus is psychogenic stress. This review summarizes the current data regarding the epigenetic basis of molecular adaptations in the brain including genome-wide epigenetic changes of DNA methylation and particular genes involved in epigenetic responses that participate in the brain response to chronic psychogenic stressors. It is concluded that specific epigenetic mechanisms in the CNS are involved in the stress response. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available