Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays a pivotal role in the pathophysiology of suicide. Objective: testing the hypothesis that alterations of DNA methylation could be involved in the dysregulation of BDNF gene expression in the brain of suicide victims. Brain samples from suicide subjects showed a statistically significant increase of DNA methylation at specific CpG sites in BDNF promoter/exon IV compared with controls. The mean methylation degree at the 4 CpG sites was always less than 12.9% in the 33 controls, while in 13 of 44 suicide victims it ranged between 13.1% and 34.2%.
COBISS.SI-ID: 26684633
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) mediates stress response. Functional polymorphism Val66Met was reported to influence the effects of stressful life events or childhood adversity on depression and suicidal behaviour. We studied the association between Val66Met variants and suicide, and in victims with or without stressful childhood experience. Similar frequency of Val66Met variants was found between all included suicide victims and the control groups. Combined Met/Met and Met/Val genotypes could be the risk factors for violent female suicide in suicide in victims with childhood trauma.
COBISS.SI-ID: 27184089