Post-traumatic stress disorder: molecular mechanisms of the intergenerational and transgenerational inheritance

Abstract

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental disorder that is closely associated with dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and for its development is required the experience of a traumatic event that causes negative emotions and memories that persist for quite a long time. The likelihood of development of post-traumatic stress disorder is influenced both environmental factors, and genetic and epigenetic characteristics of the body. In this case epigenetic modifications act as dynamic biomarkers (“nanotags”) of the impact of the environment on the genome (epigenome), which can, under certain conditions, disappear or remain not only in an individual directly exposed to psychogenic trauma, but also transmitted over a number of generations. Review focuses on the possible mechanisms of intergenerational and transgenerational inheritance of the biological effects of post-traumatic and stress-related disorders.