Child Abuse, Depression, and Methylation in Genes Involved With Stress, Neural Plasticity, and Brain Circuitry

Objectives: To determine whether epigenetic markers predict dimensional ratings of depression in maltreated children. Method: A genome-wide methylation study was completed using the Iliumina 450K BeadChip array in 94 maltreated and 96 healthy nontraumatized children with saliva-derived DNA. the 450K BeadChip does not include any methylation sites in the exact location as sites in candidate genes previously examined in the literature, so a test for replication of prior research findings was not feasible. Results: Methylation in 3 genes emerged as genome-wide-significant predictors of depression: DNA-Binding Protein Inhibitor ID-3 (ID3); Glutamate Receptor, Ionotropic N-methy1-D-aspartate (NMDA) 1 (GRIM); and Tubulin Polymerization Promoting Protein (TPPP) (p