Investigation Of Early Childhood Care Type On Methylation Of Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor Exon IV
Date
2022-05
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Institutionalized care is a widespread form of child caregiving characterized by
group care settings, high rates of caregiver turnover, and inadequate socioemotional
interaction for child development. An estimated 5.37 million children are currently
being raised in institutional care settings, many of which fall under the category of
orphanage care. Institutionalized care has been identified as a causal factor in various
negative developmental outcomes for children, such as insecure attachment, increased
risk for psychiatric disorders, troubles with facial and emotional processing,
accelerated maturation of neural connections, and disturbed stress responses. The
mechanisms by which these negative outcomes manifest in developing children are
numerous, but one of interest is DNA methylation, a dynamic form of gene expression
regulation sensitive to environmental factors. Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor
(BDNF) is a protein involved in the promotion of neuroplasticity and development of
neural connections during development, and whose expression is suspected to play a
role in negative outcomes of early adversity associated with neural connectivity. The
present study seeks to identify if differences in average percent methylation of BDNF
exon IV exist across children raised in orphanage care, those who were previously
institutionalized and are now living with foster families, and children living with their
biological families. I hypothesized that because foster care presents a more nurturing
environment compared to institutionalized care, children raised in foster care would
exhibit lower levels of BDNF methylation compared to children raised in institutional
care. No significant differences were identified across the three care types. These
findings suggest that BDNF exon IV may not be a target for methylation in response
to early adversity experienced in institutional care. Further studies should be conducted to clarify the connection between institutional care and BDNF expression,
and whether or not these changes can be identified across multiple time points.
Description
Keywords
Caregiving, Child development, Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor, Foster children