“Early life stress ‘changes’ genes”
A study in mice has hinted at the impact that early life trauma and stress can have on genes, and how they can result in behavioural problems.
Scientists described the long-term effects of stress on baby mice in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Stressed mice produced hormones that “changed” their genes, affecting their behaviour throughout their lives.
This work could provide clues to how stress and trauma in early life can lead to later problems.
The study was led by Christopher Murgatroyd, a scientist from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany.
He told BBC News that this study went into “molecular detail” – showing exactly how stressful experiences in early life could “programme” long-term behaviour.
To do this, the researchers had to cause stress to newborn mouse pups and monitor how their experiences affected them throughout their lives.
“We separated the pups from their mothers for three hours each day for ten days,” Dr Murgatroyd explained.
“It was a very mild stress and the animals were not affected at a nutritional level, but they would [have felt] abandoned.”
READ more at: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8346715.stm
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