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Bennett SN, Chang AB, Rogers FD, Jones P, Peña CJ. Thyroid hormones mediate the impact of early-life stress on ventral tegmental area gene expression and behavior. Horm Behav 2024; 159:105472. [PMID: 38141539 PMCID: PMC10922504 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2023.105472] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2023] [Revised: 11/17/2023] [Accepted: 12/12/2023] [Indexed: 12/25/2023]
Abstract
Proper thyroid function is essential to the developing brain, including dopamine neuron differentiation, growth, and maintenance. Stress across the lifespan impacts thyroid hormone signaling and anxiety disorders and depression have been associated with thyroid dysfunction (both hypo- and hyper-active). However, less is known about how stress during postnatal development impacts thyroid function and related brain development. Our previous work in mice demonstrated that early-life stress (ELS) transiently impinged on expression of a transcription factor in dopamine neurons, Otx2, shown to be regulated by thyroid hormones. We hypothesized that thyroid hormone signaling may link experience of ELS with transcriptional dysregulation within the dopaminergic midbrain, and ultimately behavior. Here, we find that ELS transiently increases thyroid-stimulating hormone levels (inversely related to thyroid signaling) in both male and female mice at P21, an effect which recovers by adolescence. We next tested whether transient treatment of ELS mice with synthetic thyroid hormone (levothyroxine, LT4) could ameliorate the impact of ELS on sensitivity to future stress, and on expression of genes related to dopamine neuron development and maintenance, thyroid signaling, and plasticity within the ventral tegmental area. Among male mice, but not females, juvenile LT4 treatment prevented hypersensitivity to adult stress. We also found that rescuing developmental deficits in thyroid hormone signaling after ELS restored levels of some genes altered directly by ELS, and prevented alterations in expression of other genes sensitive to the second hit of adult stress. These findings suggest that thyroid signaling mediates the deleterious impact of ELS on VTA development, and that temporary treatment of hypothyroidism after ELS may be sufficient to prevent future stress hypersensitivity.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Austin B Chang
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, USA
| | - Forrest D Rogers
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, USA; Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, USA
| | - Parker Jones
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, USA
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Wen S, Zhu J, Han X, Li Y, Liu H, Yang H, Hou C, Xu S, Wang J, Hu Y, Qu Y, Liu D, Aspelund T, Fang F, Valdimarsdóttir UA, Song H. Childhood maltreatment and risk of endocrine diseases: an exploration of mediating pathways using sequential mediation analysis. BMC Med 2024; 22:59. [PMID: 38331807 PMCID: PMC10854183 DOI: 10.1186/s12916-024-03271-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2023] [Accepted: 01/22/2024] [Indexed: 02/10/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), including childhood maltreatment, have been linked with increased risk of diabetes and obesity during adulthood. A comprehensive assessment on the associations between childhood maltreatment and all major endocrine diseases, as well as the relative importance of different proposed mechanistic pathways on these associations, is currently lacking. METHODS Based on the UK Biobank, we constructed a cohort including 151,659 participants with self-reported data on childhood maltreatment who were 30 years of age or older on/after January 1, 1985. All participants were followed from the index date (i.e., January 1, 1985, or their 30th birthday, whichever came later) until the first diagnosis of any or specific (12 individual diagnoses and 9 subtypes) endocrine diseases, death, or the end of follow-up (December 31, 2019), whichever occurred first. We used Cox models to examine the association of childhood maltreatment, treated as continuous (i.e., the cumulative number of experienced childhood maltreatment), ordinal (i.e., 0, 1 and ≥ 2), or binary (< 2 and ≥ 2) variable, with any and specific endocrine diseases, adjusted for multiple covariates. We further examined the risk of having multiple endocrine diseases using Linear or Logistic Regression models. Then, sequential mediation analyses were performed to assess the contribution of four possible mechanisms (i.e., suboptimal socioeconomic status (SES), psychological adversities, unfavorable lifestyle, and biological alterations) on the observed associations. RESULTS During an average follow-up of 30.8 years, 20,885 participants received a diagnosis of endocrine diseases. We observed an association between the cumulative number of experienced childhood maltreatment and increased risk of being diagnosed with any endocrine disease (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) = 1.10, 95% confidence interval 1.09-1.12). The HR was 1.26 (1.22-1.30) when comparing individuals ≥ 2 with those with < 2 experienced childhood maltreatment. We further noted the most pronounced associations for type 2 diabetes (1.40 (1.33-1.48)) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis-related endocrine diseases (1.38 (1.17-1.62)), and the association was stronger for having multiple endocrine diseases, compared to having one (odds ratio (95% CI) = 1.24 (1.19-1.30), 1.35 (1.27-1.44), and 1.52 (1.52-1.53) for 1, 2, and ≥ 3, respectively). Sequential mediation analyses showed that the association between childhood maltreatment and endocrine diseases was consistently and most distinctly mediated by psychological adversities (15.38 ~ 44.97%), while unfavorable lifestyle (10.86 ~ 25.32%) was additionally noted for type 2 diabetes whereas suboptimal SES (14.42 ~ 39.33%) for HPA-axis-related endocrine diseases. CONCLUSIONS Our study demonstrates that adverse psychological sequel of childhood maltreatment constitutes the main pathway to multiple endocrine diseases, particularly type 2 diabetes and HPA-axis-related endocrine diseases. Therefore, increased access to evidence-based mental health services may also be pivotal in reducing the risk of endocrine diseases among childhood maltreatment-exposed individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shu Wen
- Mental Health Center and West China Biomedical Big Data Center West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Guo Xue Lane 37, Chengdu, China
- Med-X Center for Informatics, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
- Department of Critical Care Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Jianwei Zhu
- Department of Orthopedic Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Xin Han
- Mental Health Center and West China Biomedical Big Data Center West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Guo Xue Lane 37, Chengdu, China
- Med-X Center for Informatics, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Yuchen Li
- Mental Health Center and West China Biomedical Big Data Center West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Guo Xue Lane 37, Chengdu, China
- Mental Health Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Haowen Liu
- Mental Health Center and West China Biomedical Big Data Center West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Guo Xue Lane 37, Chengdu, China
- Med-X Center for Informatics, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Huazhen Yang
- Mental Health Center and West China Biomedical Big Data Center West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Guo Xue Lane 37, Chengdu, China
- Med-X Center for Informatics, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Can Hou
- Mental Health Center and West China Biomedical Big Data Center West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Guo Xue Lane 37, Chengdu, China
- Med-X Center for Informatics, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Shishi Xu
- Mental Health Center and West China Biomedical Big Data Center West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Guo Xue Lane 37, Chengdu, China
- Division of Endocrinology & Metabolism, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Junren Wang
- Mental Health Center and West China Biomedical Big Data Center West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Guo Xue Lane 37, Chengdu, China
- Med-X Center for Informatics, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Yao Hu
- Mental Health Center and West China Biomedical Big Data Center West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Guo Xue Lane 37, Chengdu, China
- Med-X Center for Informatics, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Yuanyuan Qu
- Mental Health Center and West China Biomedical Big Data Center West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Guo Xue Lane 37, Chengdu, China
- Med-X Center for Informatics, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Di Liu
- Mental Health Center and West China Biomedical Big Data Center West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Guo Xue Lane 37, Chengdu, China
- Med-X Center for Informatics, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
- Sichuan University - Pittsburgh Institute, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Thor Aspelund
- Center of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland
| | - Fang Fang
- Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Unnur A Valdimarsdóttir
- Center of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland
- Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
- Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Huan Song
- Mental Health Center and West China Biomedical Big Data Center West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Guo Xue Lane 37, Chengdu, China.
- Med-X Center for Informatics, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
- Center of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland.
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Bennett SN, Chang AB, Rogers FD, Jones P, Peña CJ. Thyroid hormones mediate the impact of early-life stress on ventral tegmental area gene expression and behavior. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.08.25.554785. [PMID: 37662236 PMCID: PMC10473690 DOI: 10.1101/2023.08.25.554785] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/05/2023]
Abstract
Proper thyroid function is essential to the developing brain, including dopamine neuron differentiation, growth, and maintenance. Stress across the lifespan impacts thyroid hormone signaling and anxiety disorders and depression have been associated with thyroid dysfunction (both hypo- and hyper-active). However, less is known about how stress during postnatal development impacts thyroid function and related brain development. Our previous work in mice demonstrated that early-life stress (ELS) transiently impinged on expression of a transcription factor in dopamine neurons shown to be regulated by thyroid hormones. We hypothesized that thyroid hormone signaling may link experience of ELS with transcriptional dysregulation within the dopaminergic midbrain, and ultimately behavior. Here, we find that ELS transiently increases thyroid-stimulating hormone levels (inversely related to thyroid signaling) in both male and female mice at P21, an effect which recovers by adolescence. We next tested whether transient treatment of ELS mice with synthetic thyroid hormone (levothyroxine, LT4) could ameliorate the impact of ELS on sensitivity to future stress, and on expression of genes related to dopamine neuron development and maintenance, thyroid signaling, and plasticity within the ventral tegmental area. Among male mice, but not females, juvenile LT4 treatment prevented hypersensitivity to adult stress. We also found that rescuing developmental deficits in thyroid hormone signaling after ELS restored levels of some genes altered directly by ELS, and prevented alterations in expression of other genes sensitive to the second hit of adult stress. These findings suggest that thyroid signaling mediates the deleterious impact of ELS on VTA development, and that temporary treatment of hypothyroidism after ELS may be sufficient to prevent future stress hypersensitivity.
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Branham EM, McLean SA, Deliwala I, Mauck MC, Zhao Y, McKibben LA, Lee A, Spencer AB, Zannas AS, Lechner M, Danza T, Velilla MA, Hendry PL, Pearson C, Peak DA, Jones J, Rathlev NK, Linnstaedt SD. CpG Methylation Levels in HPA Axis Genes Predict Chronic Pain Outcomes Following Trauma Exposure. THE JOURNAL OF PAIN 2023; 24:1127-1141. [PMID: 36906051 PMCID: PMC10330094 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2023.03.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2022] [Revised: 02/21/2023] [Accepted: 03/01/2023] [Indexed: 03/12/2023]
Abstract
Chronic post-traumatic musculoskeletal pain (CPTP) is a common outcome of traumatic stress exposure. Biological factors that influence the development of CPTP are poorly understood, though current evidence indicates that the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis plays a critical role in its development. Little is known about molecular mechanisms underlying this association, including epigenetic mechanisms. Here, we assessed whether peritraumatic DNA methylation levels at 248 5'-C-phosphate-G-3' (CpG) sites in HPA axis genes (FKBP5, NR3C1, CRH, CRHR1, CRHR2, CRHBP, POMC) predict CPTP and whether identified CPTP-associated methylation levels influence expression of those genes. Using participant samples and data collected from trauma survivors enrolled into longitudinal cohort studies (n = 290), we used linear mixed modeling to assess the relationship between peritraumatic blood-based CpG methylation levels and CPTP. A total of 66 (27%) of the 248 CpG sites assessed in these models statistically significantly predicted CPTP, with the three most significantly associated CpG sites originating from the POMC gene region (ie, cg22900229 [β = .124, P < .001], cg16302441 [β = .443, P < .001], cg01926269 [β = .130, P < .001]). Among the genes analyzed, both POMC (z = 2.36, P = .018) and CRHBP (z = 4.89, P < .001) were enriched in CpG sites significantly associated with CPTP. Further, POMC expression was inversely correlated with methylation levels in a CPTP-dependent manner (6-months NRS<4: r = -.59, P < .001; 6-months NRS ≥ 4: r = -.18, P = .2312). Our results suggest that methylation of HPA axis genes including POMC and CRHBP predict risk for and may contribute to vulnerability to CPTP. PERSPECTIVE: Peritraumatic blood levels of CpG methylation sites in HPA axis genes, particularly CpG sites in the POMC gene, predict CPTP development. This data substantially advances our understanding of epigenetic predictors and potential mediators of CPTP, a highly common, morbid, and hard-to-treat form of chronic pain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erica M Branham
- Institute for Trauma Recovery, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Department of Anesthesiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Curriculum in Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Samuel A McLean
- Institute for Trauma Recovery, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Department of Anesthesiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Department of Emergency Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Ishani Deliwala
- Institute for Trauma Recovery, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Department of Anesthesiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Matthew C Mauck
- Institute for Trauma Recovery, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Department of Anesthesiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Ying Zhao
- Institute for Trauma Recovery, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Department of Anesthesiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Lauren A McKibben
- Institute for Trauma Recovery, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Department of Anesthesiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Aaron Lee
- Institute for Trauma Recovery, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Department of Anesthesiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Alex B Spencer
- Institute for Trauma Recovery, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Department of Anesthesiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Anthony S Zannas
- Institute for Trauma Recovery, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Carolina Stress Initiative, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Megan Lechner
- Forensic Nursing Program, Memorial Health System, Colorado Springs, Colorado
| | - Teresa Danza
- Forensic Nursing Program, Albuquerque SANE Collaborative, Albuquerque, New Mexico
| | | | - Phyllis L Hendry
- Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Florida College of Medicine, Jacksonville, Florida
| | - Claire Pearson
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Detroit Receiving, Detroit, Michigan
| | - David A Peak
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Jeffrey Jones
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Spectrum Health Butterworth Campus, Grand Rapids, Michigan
| | - Niels K Rathlev
- Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School Baystate, Springfield, Massachusetts
| | - Sarah D Linnstaedt
- Institute for Trauma Recovery, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Department of Anesthesiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Curriculum in Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
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