Effects of Early Life Stress on Epigenetic Changes of the Glucocorticoid Receptor 17 Promoter during Adulthood.

Growing evidence suggests that early life stress (ELS) has long-lasting effects on glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expression and behavior via epigenetic changes of the GR exon 17 promoter. However, it remains unclear whether ELS regulates histone modifications of the GR exon 17 promoter across the life span. We investigated the effects of maternal separation (MS) on histone acetylation and methylation of GR exon 17 promoter in the hippocampus, according to the age of adults. Depression-like behavior and epigenetic regulation of GR expression were examined at young and middle adulthood in mice subjected to MS from postnatal day 1 to 21. In the forced swimming test, young adult MS mice showed no effect on immobility time, but middle-aged MS mice significantly increased immobility time. Young adult and middle-aged MS mice showed decreased GR expression. Their two ages showed decreased histone acetylation with increased histone deacetylases (HDAC5) levels, decreased permissive methylation, and increased repressive methylation at the GR exon 17 promoter. The extent of changes in gene expression and histone modification in middle adulthood was greater than in young adulthood. These results indicate that MS in early life causes long-term negative effects on behavior via histone modification of the GR gene across the life span.

Parameters that affect macromolecular self-assembly of prion protein.

Amyloidogenesis of prion protein (PrP) is closely associated with the pathobiology of prion diseases. To understand details on formation of PrP amyloids, we investigated various conditions that influence the process in vitro, using full length and truncated recombinant PrP. Disrupted agitation and fluctuated temperature resulted in prolongation of lag phase during PrP amyloid formation. With the same conditions and material for the assay, fluorescence microplate readers of different manufacturers, which are assumed to have incongruent level of mechanical performance, demonstrated variations for the length of lag phase and the level of fluorescence detection. Presence of preformed amyloid seeds accelerated PrP amyloid formation. Similarly, recombinant proteins of different species affected effectual generation of amyloids. This process was also influenced by the concentrations and truncation of recombinant PrP. By investigating several conditions to perform PrP amyloid formation assay, our study addresses the factors that determine how much and how rapidly PrP amyloids are formed.