2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Postnatal epigenetic modification of glucocorticiod receptor gene in preterm infants
| Project/Area Number |
24659511
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Research Field |
Embryonic/Neonatal medicine
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| Research Institution | Juntendo University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
OHTSUKI Masahiro 順天堂大学, 医学部, 助教 (50465051)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
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| Keywords | エピジェネティクス / グルココルチコイドレセプター / ステロイド抵抗性 |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Early life experiences influence the physiological and mental health of an individual through epigenetic modification of DNA, which is thought to be highly stable across the lifespan. We calculated the methylation rates in the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) gene promoterin peripheral blood cells which were obtained from a cohort of 40 (20 term and 20 preterm) infants at birth and on postnatal day 4.
The methylation rate increased significantly between postnatal days 0 and 4 in preterm infants, but remained stable in term infants. Thus, the methylation rate was significantly higher in preterm than in term infants at postnatal day 4. Methylation rates at postnatal day 4 predicted the occurrence of later complications during the neonatal period. Our data show that the postnatal environment influences the epigenetic programming of GR expression through methylation of the GR gene promoter in premature infants, which may result in prolonged inflammation in the postnatal period.
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| Free Research Field |
新生児学
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