Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36481643›Full record

ArticleTranslational psychiatry2022

Low levels of Methyl-CpG binding protein 2 are accompanied by an increased vulnerability to the negative outcomes of stress exposure during childhood in healthy women.

Livia Cosentino, Francesca Zidda, Helene Dukal, Stephanie H Witt, Bianca De Filippis, Herta Flor

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Translational psychiatry, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
10citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
2.6field-weighted citation impact, top 9% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Review
  4. Article
  5. Maternal oxytocin administration mitigates nociceptive, social, and epigenetic impairments in adolescent offspring exposed to perinatal trauma.Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics · 2025
    Article
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Livia CosentinoCenter for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma, Italy.ORCID 0000-0001-8925-3829
Francesca ZiddaInstitute of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-2507-0542
Helene DukalDepartment of Genetic Epidemiology in Psychiatry, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.
Stephanie H WittDepartment of Genetic Epidemiology in Psychiatry, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-1571-1468
Bianca De Filippis *Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma, Italy. bianca.defilippis@iss.it.ORCID 0000-0002-6508-1206
Herta Flor *Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany. herta.flor@zi-mannheim.de.ORCID 0000-0003-4809-5398
Heidelberg University · DEIstituto Superiore di Sanità · IT

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Numerous mental illnesses arise following stressful events in vulnerable individuals, with females being generally more affected than males. Adverse childhood experiences are known to increase the risk of developing psychopathologies and DNA methylation was demonstrated to drive the long-lasting effects of early life stress and promote stress susceptibility. Methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MECP2), an X-linked reader of the DNA methylome, is altered in many mental disorders of stress origin, suggesting MECP2 as a marker of stress susceptibility; previous works also suggest a link between MECP2 and early stress experiences. The present work explored whether a reduced expression of MECP2 is paralleled by an increased vulnerability to the negative outcomes of stress exposure during childhood. To this aim, blood MECP2 mRNA levels were analyzed in 63 people without history of mental disorders and traits pertaining to depressive and anxiety symptom clusters were assessed as proxies of the vulnerability to develop stress-related disorders; stress exposure during childhood was also evaluated. Using structural equation modeling, we demonstrate that reduced MECP2 expression is accompanied by symptoms of anxiety/depression in association with exposure to stress in early life, selectively in healthy women. These results suggest a gender-specific involvement of MECP2 in the maladaptive outcomes of childhood adversities, and shed new light on the complex biology underlying gender bias in stress susceptibility.

Indexed as

Adverse Childhood ExperiencesSexismFemaleHealth StatusHumansMale

Identifiers

PMID36481643
PMCPMC9731965
OpenAlexW4311586205

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.