Elsevier

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 73, Issue 1, 1 January 2013, Pages 2-4
Biological Psychiatry

Commentary
Effects of Stress Across Generations: Why Sex Matters

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.10.004Get rights and content

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Cited by (20)

  • Environmental epigenetics of sex differences in the brain

    2020, Handbook of Clinical Neurology
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    Using a model of chronic social instability during adolescence and early adulthood, females, but not males, have been shown to be susceptible to social stress, while males were capable of transmitting this stress susceptibility across multiple generations (Saavedra-Rodriguez and Feig, 2013). Frances Champagne has suggested that the discrepancy in transmission through the germline possibly arises from the timing of de novo DNA methylation in males vs females (Champagne, 2013). The timing of de novo DNA methylation (an epigenetic modification critical for growth and development; see previous section) within germ cells may occur at different time points within the life history of males vs females and within different cellular phases dependent on the sex of the individual (Schaefer et al., 2007).

  • Parental population exposure to historical socioeconomic and political periods and grand-child's birth weight in the Lifeways Cross-Generation Cohort Study in the Republic of Ireland

    2018, SSM - Population Health
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    Moreover, as Pembrey et al. highlight (Pembrey et al., 2014), transgenerational response might not only be a risk but also a ‘protective’ adaptation for future generations, which can explain the positive association between some of the grandparental exposure to the adverse conditions in the periods studied here and both grandchildren’s high and low birthweight. Furthermore, although the sample size was small following the stratification of our analyses for index-child sex, some sex-specific associations were observed, supporting in part the Pembrey and Champagne hypothesis (Champagne, 2013; Pembrey et al., 2006) that some exposures in critical periods (e.g., preconception and antenatal, and early childhood period) may have sex-specific routes, which might explain to some extent how many health outcomes differ between males and females in humans. This study did not directly evaluate the potential exposure to nutritional restrictions during the studied periods as other studies have done in similar circumstance in other geographical contexts (e.g. Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944–1945 and the Chinese Great Famine of 1959–1961) (De Rooij, Painter, Holleman, Bossuyt, & Roseboom, 2007; Huang et al., 2010; Painter et al., 2005); however the significant associations found between the FS period of the PGM and PGF and HBW in their grandchildren as well as the positive association between both FS and EA periods of the paternal grandparents when their birth period was combined with the HBW of their granddaughters, are to some extent in line with the suggestion that exposures to hardiness or natural made circumstances may trigger greater growth and survival prospective across generations.

  • The three-hit concept of vulnerability and resilience: Toward understanding adaptation to early-life adversity outcome

    2013, Psychoneuroendocrinology
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    Possible paths of transmission include environmental influences on gametes, gestational development, postnatal care and social context during development (Curley et al., 2009; Drake et al., 2011). Factors influencing environmentally induced transgenerational transmission of phenotypes can be the gender of the parent, the age of the parent at exposure, parental pathology or psychopathology induced by the exposure (Pembrey et al., 2006; Yehuda, 2011; Champagne, 2013). The first example of epigenetic programming by early-life experience in the rodent was demonstrated in Long Evans rats by researchers in McGill University using the naturally occurring variations in the maternal care model.

  • Ancestral diet transgenerationally influences offspring in a parent-of-origin and sex-specific manner

    2019, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
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