TY  - JOUR
A1  - Farrow, Elizabeth
A1  - Geburtig-Chiocchetti, Andreas
A1  - Rogers, Jack C.
A1  - Pauli, Ruth
A1  - Raschle, Nora Maria
A1  - Gonzalez-Madruga, Karen
A1  - Smaragdi, Areti
A1  - Martinelli, Anne
A1  - Kohls, Gregor
A1  - Stadler, Christina
A1  - Konrad, Kerstin
A1  - Fairchild, Graeme
A1  - Freitag, Christine M.
A1  - Chechlacz, Magdalena
A1  - De Brito, Stephane A.
T1  - SLC25A24 gene methylation and gray matter volume in females with and without conduct disorder: an exploratory epigenetic neuroimaging study
T2  - Translational Psychiatry
N2  - Conduct disorder (CD), a psychiatric disorder characterized by a repetitive pattern of antisocial behaviors, results from a complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors. The clinical presentation of CD varies both according to the individual’s sex and level of callous-unemotional (CU) traits, but it remains unclear how genetic and environmental factors interact at the molecular level to produce these differences. Emerging evidence in males implicates methylation of genes associated with socio-affective processes. Here, we combined an epigenome-wide association study with structural neuroimaging in 51 females with CD and 59 typically developing (TD) females to examine DNA methylation in relation to CD, CU traits, and gray matter volume (GMV). We demonstrate an inverse pattern of correlation between CU traits and methylation of a chromosome 1 region in CD females (positive) as compared to TD females (negative). The identified region spans exon 1 of the SLC25A24 gene, central to energy metabolism due to its role in mitochondrial function. Increased SLC25A24 methylation was also related to lower GMV in multiple brain regions in the overall cohort. These included the superior frontal gyrus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, supramarginal gyrus, secondary visual cortex and ventral posterior cingulate cortex, which are regions that have previously been implicated in CD and CU traits. While our findings are preliminary and need to be replicated in larger samples, they provide novel evidence that CU traits in females are associated with methylation levels in a fundamentally different way in CD and TD individuals, which in turn may relate to observable variations in GMV across the brain.
KW  - human behaviour
KW  - molecular neuroscience
Y1  - 2021
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/64541
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-645419
SN  - 2158-3188
N1  - Elizabeth Farrow is a Ph.D. student funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)’s Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership (MIBTP). During the writing of the manuscript, Stephane A. De Brito was supported by a short-term Invitational Fellowship from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS - S19103) and an International Academic Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust (IAF-2019-032).
N1  - The correction for this article is available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-021-01643-w
VL  - 11
IS  - art. 492
SP  - 1
EP  - 9
PB  - Nature Publishing Group
CY  - London
ER  -