WHAT causes depression to linger years after a stressful life experience? It seems the culprit could be epigenetic changes – alterations to the chemical groups bound to DNA, which regulate the way genes are expressed.
Eric Nestler from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and his colleagues found that mice faced with an aggressive intruder developed long-lasting symptoms of depression. In the hippocampus of these mice, methyl groups had been added to the DNA around the gene for the nerve growth stimulant BDNF, whose levels normally dwindle in depression.
Treating the mice with an antidepressant countered the changes,…
