Early - life adversity - induced long - term epigenetic programming associated with early onset
of chronic physical aggression: Studies in humans and animals.
Citation: Provençal N, Suderman MJ, Guillemin C, Vitaro F, Côté SM, Hallett M, et al. (2014) Association of
Childhood Chronic Physical Aggression with a DNA Methylation Signature in Adult Human T Cells.
Moreover, our previous research done on the same men as the one studied here, revealed an association between cytokine expression and methylation
with chronic physical aggression during childhood [47], [48].
In the study presented here, we tested the hypothesis that a trajectory of
chronic physical aggression during childhood would be associated with a distinct DNA methylation profile during adulthood.
Taken together, the findings of differentially methylated genes relevant to CPA and clustering of CPA associated methylation across the genome suggests a well - defined, genome - wide epigenetic pattern associated with
chronic physical aggression in humans.
Although the present study is the first to show an association
between chronic physical aggression, and differential DNA methylation, there are several methodological limitations.
First, because DNA was available only in adulthood, we can not establish
when chronic physical aggression became associated with the observed methylation patterns and whether they precede or follow the appearance of the aggressive phenotype.
To test the hypothesis that a trajectory
of chronic physical aggression during childhood is associated with a distinct DNA methylation profile during adulthood.
Developmental origins of
chronic physical aggression: An international perspective on using singletons, twins and epigenetics.
Developmental Origins of
Chronic Physical Aggression: A Bio-Psycho-Social Model for the Next Generation of Preventive Interventions.
Context Physical violence is an important health problem, and low maternal education is a significant risk for the development of
chronic physical aggression (PA).
The validation of these differentially methylated promoters in a distinct human sample, and of a different sex, is consistent with the hypothesis that
chronic physical aggression is associated with differential methylation in these promoters.
Physical violence is an important health problem, and low maternal education is a significant risk for the development of
chronic physical aggression (PA).
However, longitudinal studies of methylation during early childhood will be necessary to determine if and how this methylation variation in T cells DNA plays a role in early development of
chronic physical aggression.
Chronic physical aggression (CPA) is characterized by frequent use of physical aggression from early childhood to adolescence.
Males on
this chronic physical aggression (CPA) trajectory tend to grow - up in adverse family environments [4], [7]--[9], have lower cognitive abilities [10], tend to be rejected by their peers from early childhood onwards [11] and have numerous physical, mental and social problems such as accidents, hyperactivity, school failure, substance abuse and unemployment [4], [5], [10], [12]--[14].
List of the probes differentially methylated between
the chronic physical aggression and the control groups.
Studies showed that
chronic physical aggression is associated with social factors, namely mothers» young age at first delivery, low education, history of behaviour problems, smoking during pregnancy, and low income.
Inadequate parenting, conflict in the house, and parental mental health and substance abuse issues are also associated with children's
chronic physical aggression.
Chronic physical aggression is a serious social concern because of its individual and social costs.