Cited by 85Child Abuse and TraumaNeuroendocrine regulation and behaviorEpigenetics and DNA Methylation

Oxytocin receptor DNA methylation and alterations of brain volumes in maltreated children

Open access
Fujisawa, Takashi X., Nishitani, Shota, Takiguchi, Shinichiro, Shimada, Koji, Smith, Alicia K., Tomoda, Akemi·2019·Neuropsychopharmacology

Abstract

Although oxytocin (OXT) plays an important role in secure attachment formation with a primary caregiver, which is impaired in many children with childhood maltreatment (CM), epigenetic regulation in response to CM is a key factor in brain development during childhood. To address this issue, we first investigated differences in salivary DNA methylation of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) between CM and Non-CM groups of Japanese children (CM: n = 44; Non-CM: n = 41) and its impact on brain structures in subgroup analysis using brain imaging and full clinical data (CM: n = 24; Non-CM: n = 31). As a result, we observed that the CM group showed higher CpG 5,6 methylation than did the Non-CM group and confirmed negative correlations of gray matter volume (GMV) in the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) with CpG 5,6 methylation. In addition, the CM group showed significantly lower GMV in the left OFC than did the Non-CM group. Furthermore, as a result of examining the relationship between GMV in the left OFC and psychiatric symptoms in CM, we observed a negative association with insecure attachment style and also confirmed the mediation effect of left-OFC GMV reduction on the relationship between OXTR methylation and insecure attachment style. These results suggest that any modulation of the oxytocin signaling pathway induced by OXTR hypermethylation at CpG 5,6 leads to atypical development of the left OFC, resulting in distorted attachment formation in children with CM.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s41386-019-0414-8

Cites

70 of 70 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Children experiencing childhood abuse or neglect have hypermethylation of the Oxtr MT2 region in the orbital frontal cortex.

    “Similar results are seen in humans, as children experiencing childhood abuse or neglect have hypermethylation of the Oxtr MT2 region in the orbital frontal cortex (OFC) [69].”

    From The Neurobiology of Love and Pair Bonding from Human and Animal Perspectives (2023) · cites this paper as [69]

    The Results (page unavailable) report higher OXTR CpG 5,6 methylation in maltreated children, and the Methods identify the tested region as MT2. But methylation was measured in saliva, not in the orbitofrontal cortex; the Results report a correlation between salivary methylation and left-OFC gray-matter volume. The claim conflates the measurement site with the brain region examined by imaging. (LLM, conf=0.91)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • There are other candidate genes with at least some data in childhood trauma and epigenetic alterations, such as COMT, IL-6, and OXTR.

    “There are other candidate genes with at least some data in childhood trauma and epigenetic alterations, such as COMT, IL-6 (188), and OXTR (189).”
  • In a recent study, there was hypermethylation at OXTR CpG sites in children who had experienced childhood trauma.

    “there was hypermethylation at OXTR CpG sites in children who had experienced childhood trauma”
  • OXTR hypermethylation has been associated with decreased grey matter volumes in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC).

    “hypermethylation has been associated with decreased grey matter volumes in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. Takuma T, Toda K. Interpersonal attitude in adolescence from the viewpoint of attachment theory. J Soc Sci Humanit (Jimbun gakuho). 1988;196:1-16.
  2. Kasuya K, Kawamura S. Development of an internal working model for junior high school students: examination of reliability and validity. Jpn J Couns Sci. 2005;38: 141-8.
  3. Takiguchi S, Fujisawa TX, Mizushima S, Saito DN, Shimada K, Okamoto Y, et al. The neural effects of intranasal oxytocin administration in reactive attachment dis- order. No To Hattatsu. 2016;48:S234.
  4. Haas BW, Filkowski MM, Cochran RN, Denison L, Ishak A, Nishitani S, et al. Epi- genetic modification of OXT and human sociability. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2016;113:E3816-23.
  5. Gillath O, Bunge SA, Shaver PR, Wendelken C, Mikulincer M. Attachment style differences in the ability to suppress negative thoughts: exploring the neural correlates. Neuroimage . 2005;28:835-47.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Fujisawa, T. X., Nishitani, S., Takiguchi, S., Shimada, K., Smith, A. K., & Tomoda, A.
Affiliations
  • University of Fukui (JP)
  • Emory University (US)
  • University of Fukui Hospital (JP)
Corresponding author
Tomoda, Akemi
Venue
Neuropsychopharmacology
Published
2019-05-09
Volume
44
Issue
12
Pages
2045-2053
ISSN
  • 0893-133X (ISSN-L)
  • 1740-634X
OpenAlex
W2944121801
Cited by
85
References
70
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 1
FWCI
9.92
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Neuropsychopharmacology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
MEXT | Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (15K01753, 15K21026, 15H03106, 15K12720)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Epigenetics and DNA Methylation
Keywords
oxytocin receptor, DNA methylation, child abuse, epigenetics, brain development, gray matter volume, orbitofrontal cortex, insecure attachment, salivary DNA, mediating effect, psychiatric symptoms
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Brain, Child, Child Abuse, Female, Humans, Japan, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Prefrontal Cortex, Receptors, Oxytocin, DNA Methylation, Epigenesis, Genetic, Asian People, Young Adult, Gray Matter

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review