Epigenetic Control of Stress Responses
Chronic exposure of rodents to several forms of stress alters chromatin structure in the brain. One type of modification is global: chronic stress alters total cellular levels of acetylated or methylated histone within specific limbic brain regions. Such global changes presumably reflect a genomewide skew toward a more permissive or restrictive state of chromatin activity. The other type of modification or in DNA methylation at particular gene that mediated its altered expression. Interestingly, many of these locus-specific changes defy the coincident global modifications.