ArticlePloS one2011
Broad epigenetic signature of maternal care in the brain of adult rats.
Article in PloS one, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 181 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
181 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 445 citations in OpenAlex.
- The microbiota-gut-brain-epigenome axis as a novel therapeutic target for decoding postpartum depression.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- An epigenome-wide association study of early-onset major depression in monozygotic twins.Translational psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- Aberrant Epigenomic Modulation of Glucocorticoid Receptor Gene (NR3C1) in Early Life Stress and Major Depressive Disorder Correlation: Systematic Review and Quantitative Evidence Synthesis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Pooled it
- Breastfeeding effects on DNA methylation in the offspring: A systematic literature review.PloS one · 2017Pooled it
- The methylome in females with adolescent Conduct Disorder: Neural pathomechanisms and environmental risk factors.PloS one · 2022Trial
- Psychosocial adversity and socioeconomic position during childhood and epigenetic age: analysis of two prospective cohort studies.Human molecular genetics · 2018Trial
- Maternal separation increases anxiety-like phenotypes, fear responses, and altersNeurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Natural variations in maternal behavior shape anxiety and hippocampal neurogenesis in offspring.Life science alliance · 2026Article
- Stress-induced epigenome changes as a risk factor in the onset of mental disorders.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Toward Understanding and Halting Legacies of Trauma.Biological psychiatry · 2025Review
- Postnatal maternal care impacts hypothalamicbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Epigenetics and immunology: Under-recognized aspects of suicidality.World journal of psychiatry · 2025Review
- Developmental Behavioural Plasticity and DNA Methylation Patterns in Response to Predation Stress in Trinidadian Guppies.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Probing the roles of developmentally active neurons, in early-life adversity induced disruptions of adult behaviors.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Review
- Epigenetic Modifications and Neuroplasticity in the Pathogenesis of Depression: A Focus on Early Life Stress.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Amphetamine exposure during embryogenesis changes expression and function of the dopamine transporter in Caenorhabditis elegans offspring.Journal of neurochemistry · 2024Article
- Translational models of stress and resilience: An applied neuroscience methodology review.Neuroscience applied · 2024Review
- Epigenetic regulation in major depression and other stress-related disorders: molecular mechanisms, clinical relevance and therapeutic potential.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2023Review
- Prenatal programming of environmental sensitivity.Translational psychiatry · 2023Review
- Lasting impact of postnatal maternal separation on the developing BNST: Lifelong socioemotional consequences.Neuropharmacology · 2023Review
121 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMaternal care is associated with long-term effects on behavior and epigenetic programming of the NR3C1 (GLUCOCORTICOID RECEPTOR) gene in the hippocampus of both rats and humans. In the rat, these effects are reversed by cross-fostering, demonstrating that they are defined by epigenetic rather than genetic processes. However, epigenetic changes at a single gene promoter are unlikely to account for the range of outcomes and the persistent change in expression of hundreds of additional genes in adult rats in response to differences in maternal care. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL
findingsWe examine here using high-density oligonucleotide array the state of DNA methylation, histone acetylation and gene expression in a 7 million base pair region of chromosome 18 containing the NR3C1 gene in the hippocampus of adult rats. Natural variations in maternal care are associated with coordinate epigenetic changes spanning over a hundred kilobase pairs. The adult offspring of high compared to low maternal care mothers show epigenetic changes in promoters, exons, and gene ends associated with higher transcriptional activity across many genes within the locus examined. Other genes in this region remain unchanged, indicating a clustered yet specific and patterned response. Interestingly, the chromosomal region containing the protocadherin-α, -β, and -γ (Pcdh) gene families implicated in synaptogenesis show the highest differential response to maternal care. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results suggest for the first time that the epigenetic response to maternal care is coordinated in clusters across broad genomic areas. The data indicate that the epigenetic response to maternal care involves not only single candidate gene promoters but includes transcriptional and intragenic sequences, as well as those residing distantly from transcription start sites. These epigenetic and transcriptional profiles constitute the first tiling microarray data set exploring the relationship between epigenetic modifications and RNA expression in both protein coding and non-coding regions across a chromosomal locus in the mammalian brain.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.