Adolescent binge-pattern alcohol exposure alters genome-wide DNA methylation patterns in the hypothalamus of alcohol-na ïve male offspring

Teenage binge drinking is a major health concern in the United States, with 21% of teenagers reporting binge-pattern drinking behavior in the last 30 days. Recently, our lab showed that alcohol-na ïve offspring of rats exposed to alcohol during adolescence exhibited altered gene expression profiles in the hypothalamus, a brain region involved in stress regulation. We employed Enhanced Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing as an unbiased approach to test the hypothesis that parental exp osure to binge-pattern alcohol during adolescence alters DNA methylation profiles in their alcohol-naïve offspring.

Source: Alcohol - October 23, 2016 Category: Addiction Authors: AnnaDorothea Asimes, Audrey Torcaso, Elena Pinceti, Chun K. Kim, Nancy J. Zeleznik-Le, Toni R. Pak Source Type: research