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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Mar 14.
Published in final edited form as: Biol Psychiatry. 2009 Jan 15;65(9):760–769. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.11.028

Figure 3. Maltreatment during infancy elicits methylation of BDNF DNA in the prefrontal cortex.

Figure 3

(A) Schematic of the BDNF gene, with positions of CpG islands (in grey) relative to the transcription start site (TSS, indicated by the bent arrow) of exons IV and IX. Methylated primer pair positions for each exon are indicated by the left and right arrows, and primer sequences can be found in Supplementary Table 1. (B) Methylation specific real-time PCR indicates that maltreatment results in methylation of BDNF DNA that persists into adulthood. For clarity of presentation, only the data generated in the abusive condition is illustrated. Experimental subjects (males and females) were derived from 13 mothers. n=4–9/group; *p-values significant versus normal maternal care (PN8 M p=0.0076, U p=0.0007; PN30 M p=0.0078, U p<0.0001; PN90 M(IV) p=0.0427, U(IV) p=0.0319, M(IX) p=0.0376, U(IX) p<0.0001; one-sample t tests) and cross-fostered controls (PN8 M p=0.0294, U p=0.0258; PN30 M p=0.0031, U p=0.0367; PN90 M p=0.0415, U p=0.0435; Student’s two-tailed t tests). Error bars represent SEM. PN=postnatal day; M=methylated; U=unmethylated.