A cross-national exploration of societal-level factors associated with child physical abuse and neglect.

Children around the world experience violence at the hands of their caregivers at alarming rates. A recent review estimates that a minimum of 50% of children in Asia, Africa, and North America experienced severe physical violence by caregivers in the past year, with large variations between countries. Identifying modifiable country-level factors driving these geographic variations has great potential for achieving population-level reductions in rates of child maltreatment. This study builds on previous research by focusing on caregiver-reported physical abuse and neglect victimisation, examining 22 societal factors representing 11 different constructs among 42 countries from 5 continents at different stages of development. Our findings suggest that gender inequity may be important for both child physical abuse and neglect. Indicators of literacy and development may also be important for child neglect. Given the limitations of the correlational findings and measurement issues, it is critical to continue to investigate societal-level factors of child maltreatment so that interventions and prevention efforts can incorporate strategies that have the greatest potential for population-level impact.

Mitochondrial polymerase gamma dysfunction and aging cause cardiac nuclear DNA methylation changes.

Cardiomyopathy (CM) is an intrinsic weakening of myocardium with contractile dysfunction and congestive heart failure (CHF). CHF has been postulated to result from decreased mitochondrial energy production and oxidative stress. Effects of decreased mitochondrial oxygen consumption also can accelerate with aging. We previously showed DNA methylation changes in human hearts with CM. This was associated with mitochondrial DNA depletion, being another molecular marker of CM. We examined the relationship between mitochondrial dysfunction and cardiac epigenetic DNA methylation changes in both young and old mice. We used genetically engineered C57Bl/6 mice transgenic for a cardiac-specific mutant of the mitochondrial polymerase-γ (termed Y955C). Y955C mice undergo left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) at a young age (∼ 94 days old), and LVH decompensated to CHF at old age (∼ 255 days old). Results found 95 genes differentially expressed as a result of Y955C expression, while 4,452 genes were differentially expressed as a result of aging hearts. Moreover, cardiac DNA methylation patterns differed between Y955C (4,506 peaks with 68.5% hypomethylation) and aged hearts (73,286 peaks with 80.2% hypomethylated). Correlatively, of the 95 Y955C-dependent differentially expressed genes, 30 genes (31.6%) also displayed differential DNA methylation; in the 4,452 age-dependent differentially expressed genes, 342 genes (7.7%) displayed associated DNA methylation changes. Both Y955C and aging demonstrated significant enrichment of CACGTG-associated E-box motifs in differentially methylated regions. Cardiac mitochondrial polymerase dysfunction alters nuclear DNA methylation. Furthermore, aging causes a robust change in cardiac DNA methylation that is partially associated with mitochondrial polymerase dysfunction.

Ecstasy (MDMA) Alters Cardiac Gene Expression and DNA Methylation: Implications for Circadian Rhythm Dysfunction in the Heart.

MDMA (ecstasy) is an illicit drug that stimulates monoamine neurotransmitter release and inhibits reuptake. MDMA's acute cardiotoxicity includes tachycardia and arrhythmia which are associated with cardiomyopathy. MDMA acute cardiotoxicity has been explored, but neither long-term MDMA cardiac pathological changes nor epigenetic changes have been evaluated. Microarray analyses were employed to identify cardiac gene expression changes and epigenetic DNA methylation changes. To identify permanent MDMA-induced pathogenetic changes, mice received daily 10- or 35-day MDMA, or daily 10-day MDMA followed by 25-day saline washout (10 + 25 days). MDMA treatment caused differential gene expression (p < .05, fold change >1.5) in 752 genes following 10 days, 558 genes following 35 days, and 113 genes following 10-day MDMA + 25-day saline washout. Changes in MAPK and circadian rhythm gene expression were identified as early as 10 days. After 35 days, circadian rhythm genes (Per3, CLOCK, ARNTL, and NPAS2) persisted to be differentially expressed. MDMA caused DNA hypermethylation and hypomethylation that was independent of gene expression; hypermethylation of genes was found to be 71% at 10 days, 68% at 35 days, and 91% at 10 + 25 days washout. Differential gene expression paralleled DNA methylation in 22% of genes at 10-day treatment, 17% at 35 days, and 48% at 10 + 25 days washout. We show here that MDMA induced cardiac epigenetic changes in DNA methylation where hypermethylation predominated. Moreover, MDMA induced gene expression of key elements of circadian rhythm regulatory genes. This suggests a fundamental organism-level event to explain some of the etiologies of MDMA dysfunction in the heart.