ArticleNature communications2016
Genome-wide DNA methylation levels and altered cortisol stress reactivity following childhood trauma in humans.
Article in Nature communications, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 108 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
108 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 237 citations in OpenAlex.
- Parental Preconception Adversity and Offspring Health in African Americans: A Systematic Review of Intergenerational Studies.Trauma, violence & abuse · 2023Pooled it
- Psychological trauma as a transdiagnostic risk factor for mental disorder: an umbrella meta-analysis.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2023Pooled it
- A systematic review of childhood maltreatment and DNA methylation: candidate gene and epigenome-wide approaches.Translational psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- Aberrant Epigenomic Modulation of Glucocorticoid Receptor Gene (NR3C1) in Early Life Stress and Major Depressive Disorder Correlation: Systematic Review and Quantitative Evidence Synthesis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Pooled it
- Early-life adversity and cortisol response to social stress: a meta-analysis.Translational psychiatry · 2017Pooled it
- An epigenome-wide association study meta-analysis of educational attainment.Molecular psychiatry · 2017Pooled it
- The methylome in females with adolescent Conduct Disorder: Neural pathomechanisms and environmental risk factors.PloS one · 2022Trial
- Healthy Foundations Study: a randomised controlled trial to evaluate biological embedding of early-life experiences.BMJ open · 2018Trial
- Mapping DNA Methylation Signatures to Identify Epigenetic Variation Across Subcortical Regions of the Human Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Brain.Biological psychiatry · 2026Article
- Association between childhood trauma and 26-week prognosis in adolescents with major depressive disorder: a cohort study.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Acute stress induces changes in epigenome-wide DNA methylation.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Maternal epigenetic signatures are associated with small for gestational age births among black women.Epigenetics insights · 2026Article
- Unpredictability is a childhood adversity that contributes to mental health problems.Nature. Mental health · 2026Article
- Effects of DNA methylation inhibitors on light-induced circadian clock plasticity.Neurobiology of sleep and circadian rhythms · 2025Article
- Beyond microbial exposure and colonization: multisensory shaping of the gut microbiome.mSystems · 2025Review
- A first-born twin has a higher risk of acute leukemia in a population-based assessment of cancer in twins in California, and a lower than anticipated rate of twin concordance.Haematologica · 2025Article
- Adolescent depression, childhood maltreatment, and the immune system; a role for epigenetic aging?Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Article
- Childhood trauma cortisol and immune cell glucocorticoid transcript levels are associated with increased risk for suicidality in adolescence.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- MethAgingDB: a comprehensive DNA methylation database for aging biology.Scientific data · 2025Article
- Impact of acute stress exposure on genome-wide DNA methylation.Scientific reports · 2025Article
48 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
16 authors at 11 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
DNA methylation likely plays a role in the regulation of human stress reactivity. Here we show that in a genome-wide analysis of blood DNA methylation in 85 healthy individuals, a locus in the Kit ligand gene (KITLG; cg27512205) showed the strongest association with cortisol stress reactivity (P=5.8 × 10(-6)). Replication was obtained in two independent samples using either blood (N=45, P=0.001) or buccal cells (N=255, P=0.004). KITLG methylation strongly mediates the relationship between childhood trauma and cortisol stress reactivity in the discovery sample (32% mediation). Its genomic location, a CpG island shore within an H3K27ac enhancer mark, and the correlation between methylation in the blood and prefrontal cortex provide further evidence that KITLG methylation is functionally relevant for the programming of stress reactivity in the human brain. Our results extend preclinical evidence for epigenetic regulation of stress reactivity to humans and provide leads to enhance our understanding of the neurobiological pathways underlying stress vulnerability.
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Registered trials
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 Socratic graph.