MeCP2 haplodeficiency and early-life stress interaction on anxiety-like behavior in adolescent female mice

• Autor(a) principal: Abellán-Álvaro, María
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Stork, Oliver, Agustín-Pavón, Carmen, Santos, Mónica
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/96865; https://doi.org/10.1186/s11689-021-09409-7
• topic: Arginine-vasopressin; Corticotropin-releasing hormone; Maternal separation; Rett syndrome; c-FOS

Early-life stress can leave persistent epigenetic marks that may modulate vulnerability to psychiatric conditions later in life, including anxiety, depression and stress-related disorders. These are complex disorders with both environmental and genetic influences contributing to their etiology. Methyl-CpG Binding Protein 2 (MeCP2) has been attributed a key role in the control of neuronal activity-dependent gene expression and is a master regulator of experience-dependent epigenetic programming. Moreover, mutations in the MECP2 gene are the primary cause of Rett syndrome and, to a lesser extent, of a range of other major neurodevelopmental disorders. Here, we aim to study the interaction of MeCP2 with early-life stress in variables known to be affected by this environmental manipulation, namely anxiety-like behavior and activity of the underlying neural circuits.