Figure 1.Age related changes in AVP expression and DNA methylation.(A) Aging does not affect AVP mRNA expression in control mice. Early-life
adversity (ELA) leads to a persistent increase in AVP mRNA expression. *P
< 0.05. (B) Age-dependent hypo-methylation occurs only in the
control mice. Early-life adversity leads to a persistent hypomethylation
across the enhancer region in 6-week old mice. **P < 0.005 and ***P <
0.0001. (C) Schematic diagram of the AVP and oxytocin genes
orientated tail-to-tail and separated by the intergenic region (IGR). Exons
are indicated by open numbered boxes and distribution of CpG residues is
shown. The downstream enhancer is boxed in gray with MeCP2 DNA-binding
sites (CpG10, 12, and 14) indicated by green lines. (D) Comparison
of the methylation status of all CpGs in the IGR between 6-week and 1-year
aged control mice shows that the majority of CpGs in the control mice
undergo hypomethylation. In contrast, those methylation landmarks mapping
to MeCP2 DNA-binding sites (marked in green) are protected from
age-associated changes in DNA methylation.
